Harry Potter
by QueenOpalay the StateAlchemist
Summary: The Trivia of the Hary Potter movies


Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone Trivia

During filming, Daniel Radcliffe changed the screen on Robbie Coltrane's cellphone to Turkish. Coltrane had to phone hair designer Eithne Fennel's Turkish father in order to find out Turkish for "Change Language".

There was a huge media outcry in Gloucester, England, when it was decided to use the local Cathedral for some of the Hogwarts scenes. Protesters wrote letters by the sack-load to local newspapers, claiming it was blasphemy and promising to block the film-crew's access. In the end, only one protester turned up.

Alan Rickman was hand-picked to play Snape by J.K. Rowling, and received special instruction from her as to his character. Rowling even provided the actor with vital details of Snape's back story not revealed until the final novel.

The Hogwarts motto, "Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus", means "never tickle a sleeping dragon".

In the script, the flashbacks to Voldemort killing Harry's parents were written by J.K. Rowling herself. The producers knew she was the only one who knew exactly what happened.

In the film, the scar on Harry's forehead is off-center. This was done at J.K. Rowling's request. Due to the artwork on the covers of her books, many people have assumed that his scar is supposed to be in the center of his forehead. The books, however, never specify exactly where on his forehead the scar is located.

The filmmakers attempted to go the extra mile of matching the kid's appearances to how the novel describes them, by fitting Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) with green-colored contact lenses, and similarly make Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) wear fake buck teeth. But when Dan's eyes reacted strongly to the contacts, and Emma couldn't talk clearly with the fake teeth in her mouth, these ideas were dropped.

The Restricted Section scene was filmed in the Duke Humfrey's building at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. They have very strict rules about not bringing flames into the library. The makers of Harry Potter were the first ever to be allowed to break this rule in hundreds of years.

The movie is known as "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" everywhere except the USA and so every scene in which the Philosopher's Stone was mentioned was filmed twice (once with the actors saying "Philosopher's" and once with the actors saying "Sorcerer's") or redubbed (notably, one of the times Hermoine says it in the library, her face isn't shown). The reason for this was to keep the films consistent with the book series: the US publisher, Scholastic, had changed the title (and corresponding text) to "Sorcerer's Stone". The title change was done with the consent of author 'J.K. Rowling', but she has since said that she regrets having granting permission, and as a fledgling author she wasn't in a strong enough position to fight it at the time.

At one point, when Harry, Ron, and Hermione are approaching Hagrid, he can be seen playing a wind instrument. He is playing Hedwig's Theme.

Tom Felton did not read any of the Harry Potter books before auditioning, and at the audition the director was asking each contender for the role of Malfoy what their favorite part in the book was. When it was his turn, Felton said his favorite part in the book was the part at Gringrotts, which is what the previous contender had just said. The director saw through this very quickly and thought it was very funny.

Robbie Coltrane was the very first person to be cast.

Author J.K. Rowling insisted that the principal cast be British and she got her wish, with two exceptions - Richard Harris was, of course, Irish, and Zoë Wanamaker, though she has made her name as a "British" actress, was actually born in the United States, which is also the case of Emma Watson who was born in France. Other non-Brits in the cast include Verne Troyer, born in Michigan, USA, who plays Griphook (the second Goblin in Gringots' Bank) and Chris Columbus daughter, Eleanor Columbus, who played Susan Bones.

The tabby cat used ran away during filming and came back two days later.

Platform 9 3/4 was filmed at King's Cross, but on platforms 4 and 5. J.K. Rowling has admitted that she mixed up the layout of London's King's Cross railway station when she assigned the Hogwarts Express to platform 9 3/4, reached by using magic between platforms 9 and 10. She meant the location to be in the inter-city part of the station, but 9 and 10 are actually among the rather less grand suburban platforms. The movie conformed to the book: the platforms seen as 9 and 10 are in real life inter-city platforms 4 and 5. However, there is, in fact a "Platform 9 3/4" at King's Cross. It's located in the walkway area between the real platforms 9 and 10, as a treat for fans of Harry Potter.

Among the portraits on the shifting staircase, you can clearly see a painting of Anne Boleyn (King Henry VIII's second wife, mother of Queen Elizabeth I), who was condemned to death as a witch.

By February 2002 this was the second highest grossing film worldwide after Titanic (1997).

Daniel Radcliffe learned he'd won the role of Harry Potter while in the bathtub.

Warner Bros. originally considered making the entire "Harry Potter" series as a set of CGI animated films, or attempting to combine several of the novels into a single movie. The studio's reasoning mainly had to do with concern over the rapid aging of child actors-if production ran too long on any of the films, or if production was delayed between sequels, the leading actors might have to be recast. Author J.K. Rowling vetoed both the ideas of combining books and an animated film, so the studio decided instead to produce all seven (later eight) films back to back so the same child actors could play their roles in every film.

The inscription around the Mirror of Erised says: "Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi". Reading the inscription backwards it says, "I show not your face but your heart's desire."

In the original draft, Drew Barrymore, a self-proclaimed Harry Potter fan, had a cameo.

Rosie O'Donnell and Robin Williams were two of the celebrities who had asked for a role in the movie without pay. However they did not film any scenes for the movie.

In the trophy cupboard, to the right of the Quidditch trophy, you can see the "Service to the School" trophy with part of "Tom M. Riddle" engraved on it; the trophy and the name on it are confirmed by Ron in a deleted scene from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002).

The Wizard's chess-set Harry and Ron were playing, the red queen is from the Lewis Chessmen, the most important of all chess pieces dating from the 12th Century. They were found in 1831 on a beach in Uig, Lewis. 78 pieces were recovered in all, and are now in the care of the National Museum of Scotland and in the British Museum in London.

David Thewlis, who later played Professor Lupin in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), was considered for the role of Professor Quirrell.

At the time this film was in production, only four of the eventual seven books in the series had been published. J.K. Rowling was retained as a consultant on the film, not only to ensure consistency with the first book, but also to avoid conflicts with her vision for the later entries. It has been confirmed that at least one line of dialogue was removed from the script to avoid a contradiction with the then-unpublished "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix".

Although Hermione, born 19th September 1979, is older than Harry and Ron (both born 1980) Emma Watson is the youngest of the three actors.

The floating candles in the Great Hall were created using candle-shaped holders containing oil and burning wicks and suspended from wires that moved up and down on a special effects rig to create the impression that they were floating. Eventually one of the wires snapped due to the heat of the flame causing the candle to fall to the floor. Fortunately no one was injured, but the decision was made to re-create the candles using CGI for the following films as using real candles was determined to be a safety hazard.

Richard Harris only agreed to taking the part of Albus Dumbledore after his eleven-year-old granddaughter threatened never to speak to him again. Patrick McGoohan was originally offered the role but had turned it down due to health reasons. Ironically, Harris had health issues of his own, dying of Hodgkin's lymphoma shortly before the release of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002).

The hut used during the filming as Hagrid's hut has since been demolished in case fans of the film swamped it.

On the Quidditch trophy that has Harry's father's name on it, there are additional inscriptions for M. McGonagall and R.J.H. King. The latter being a reference to John King, the supervising art director on the film.

Three owls play Hedwig: Gizmo, Ook and Sprout, but mainly Gizmo.

The "Hogwart's Express" locomotive portrayed in this film, a 1937 4-6-0 "Hall" class steam engine number 5972, originally belonged to the Great Western Railway and went under the name of "Olton Hall".

Robbie Coltrane was also handpicked by J.K. Rowling to play Hagrid.

The last name Dumbledore means "Bumblebee" in Old English.

Ron's choice of opening in the final chess match is called Center Counter Opening (or Scandinavian Defense), which, due to its asymmetrical nature, is said to be a highly unpredictable and difficult opening for either side, that rarely results in a draw.

Author J.K. Rowling revealed on her website that she was considered to play Lily Potter during the Mirror of Erised scene, but she turned down the role, which instead went to Geraldine Somerville.

In this film, all the food that you see in the Great Hall feasts are real. Director Chris Columbus wanted a very elaborate welcome feast to match the description in the book, with roast beef, ham, turkey, and all the trimmings. Unfortunately filming under the hot stage lighting for hours at a time quickly caused the food to develop an unpleasant odor, despite the meat being changed every two days and the vegetables twice a day. For the following films samples of real food were frozen so that molds could be made of them and copies cast in resin.

The floor in the great hall is made of actual York stone. Production designer Stuart Craig had the foresight to invest a significant amount of his design budget on the stone. While this decision was questioned at the time, it proved to be a wise one, as the stone was durable enough to withstand the footsteps of hundreds of actors and several camera crews over the near decade it took to film the entire series.

Had Julie Walters known that fellow Midlander Mark Williams would be cast as Molly Weasley's husband Arthur in the following film, she would have played up their shared accent, feeling this would have helped signpost their family's perceived uniqueness in the magical world.

In the scene where Harry, Ron and Hermione are approaching Hagrid's hut and Hagrid is diverting himself by playing a recorder on his front steps, the song that he is playing is the recurring series motif.

Harry Potter's birthday is stated in the books to be 31 July 1980, as author J.K. Rowling was born on 31 July 1965. By coincidence, actor Richard Griffiths (Uncle Vernon) was born on 31 July 1947. Actor Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) was once reported to been born on 31 July 1989, but this was merely a publicity stunt. In fact, Radcliffe was born on 23 July 1989.

The word 'bloody' appears in the film six times, along with one 'arse', one 'bugger', and two 'blasted's. This, and some very scary scenes in the haunted forest, led to its PG certificate.

The film reveals that the 12th use for dragon's blood is an oven cleaner.

Nicolas Flamel, mentioned as the creator of the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone, has figured as a plot device in novels featuring characters such as Batman, Indiana Jones, and Robert Langdon of The Da Vinci Code (2006). He was (possibly) a real alchemist (born in France around 1330) who was believed by some people to have produced the Philosopher's Stone. Since there were mysterious circumstances surrounding his death in 1418, it has been rumored that he lived for hundreds of years. The book/movie gets his age right.

Warwick Davis, who played Professor Flitwick and the first Gringotts Goblin, also provided the voice for Griphook who was physically played by Verne Troyer.

In the troll scene in the girl's bathroom, Daniel Radcliffe isn't actually on the troll's neck, because the motions would have snapped his neck; therefore, his image was digitally added.

For the Gringotts interior scenes, the Australian High Commission in London was used. The exteriors are the Silver Vaults located not far from the Australian High Commission.

Gabriel Thomson was considered for the role of Harry.

All the cars in Privet Drive are Vauxhalls, no matter the time period. The Dursleys own a silver 2000 Vauxhall Vectra estate. All other cars parked in the drives are Vectra estates in the present day, with Astra Belmont and Cavalier saloons from the late 1980s in the pre-titles prologue.

Robbie Coltrane's 6'10" body double for Hagrid is former England rugby international, Martin Bayfield.

Screenwriter Michael Goldenberg wrote a draft of the script but was ultimately rejected by David Heyman in favor of Steve Kloves' draft. Heyman however was impressed with his draft and was subsequently brought in to write the script for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) when Kloves backed out to commit on a personal project.

West Anglia Great Northern Trains, the company that owns "Platform 9-3/4", affixed one-quarter of a luggage trolley forwardly "disappearing" into the wall so as to allow fans (and their parents) to take pictures of themselves seeming to disappear into the wall.

The platform attendant at Kings Cross who asks Harry, "You think you're funny, do you?" actually works for GNER. He is, however, a train manager and not a platform attendant.

In addition to Steven Spielberg, other candidates for the director's job were Jonathan Demme, Brad Silberling and Terry Gilliam. Gilliam was J.K. Rowling's initial favorite but the studio finally picked Chris Columbus to direct because he had experience directing child actors. Columbus was also asked many times by his daughter to direct and he agreed after he read her copy of the book.

In the flying lesson the whistle 'Madame Hooch' is wearing is called a 'Boatswain's Call' and was originally used in the early Navy (before PA systems) to signal an order, because the whistle could be heard from one end of the ship to the other. It is now used in the Navy as a ceremonial whistle.

In order to give Hogwarts Castle an authentic look and feel, much of the filming was done at locations around England, including Christ Church, Oxford, Durham Cathedral, Gloucester Cathedral, and Alnwick Castle. In fact, the only sets that were built for Hogwarts were the Great Hall, the Grand Staircase, and the Gryffindor Common Room. In the later films, additional sets would be built for the various classrooms and other locations around Hogwarts.

In the second book of the series, "Nearly Headless" Nick invites Harry to his "deathday" party, celebrating the 500th anniversary of his demise in 1492 (a fact that fans have used to place the entire book chronology in the years 1991-1998). 1492, is, of course, the year that Christopher Columbus made his famous voyage to the New World; this film's production company is "1492 Pictures", a deliberate reference to director Chris Columbus' famous namesake.

At one point, Harry mentions that during his trip to London, he heard Hagrid profess his love for dragons and his desire to own one. The scene that Harry describes was filmed but deleted from the movie.

The trouble-making poltergeist Peeves (played by Rik Mayall) does not, in the end, appear in the movie nor in deleted scenes on any home editions of the film. Mayall claimed he didn't find out that he was cut from the final cut until he saw the movie himself. Ultimately Peeves was never used in any of the Harry Potter films.

This movie has the distinction of opening on more screens in the USA than any other (3762).

Tim Roth was a leading contender for the role of Professor Severus Snape. Roth dropped out of contention, however, to pursue his role as General Thade in Tim Burton's adaptation of Planet of the Apes (2001).

The street that Harry and Hagrid walk down to get to the Leaky Cauldron is the same street Sean Connery is parked in waiting for Catherine Zeta-Jones to leave the antiques shop in Entrapment (1999).

At one time, Alan Parker was considered for the director's job.

The exterior used for King's Cross Station is actually St Pancras Station which is just down the road. This was used because the facade of St Pancras is more visually appealing than that of King's Cross.

John Williams composed a piece of music specifically for the movie's trailer, and it is found on the soundtrack as "The Prologue". As of March 2002, he has done this only once before, for Steven Spielberg's Hook (1991). (However, on the collector's edition of the soundtrack for Jaws (1975), a previously unreleased track appears called "Shark Attack" - this was only used in the trailer for that movie - in 1975.)

Steven Spielberg reportedly wanted Haley Joel Osment for the part of Harry.

Director Chris Columbus wanted to work with DP John Seale and asked the studio to hire him to shoot the picture, but at that time Seale was committed to shooting Timeline (2003). However, production delays for the latter film enabled Seale to be available for the movie's photography period.

Liam Aiken was originally given the role of Harry, but a day later the offer was revoked when it was discovered that he wasn't British (Aiken had previously worked with director Chris Columbus).

The design for the Great Hall set was based on the hall at Christ Church, Oxford. Oxford University itself also served as a filming location.

The only Harry Potter movie not to feature a variation of the Warner Bros. logo, although the film's theme is played over it as opposed to the original WB theme.

Hatty Jones auditioned for Hermione Granger before it went to Emma Watson. She and Emma were the very last girls for the audition.

This movie, the first in the 'Harry Potter' franchise, has the equal highest number of Academy Award nominations by a 'Harry Potter' movie totaling to three. The other series entry to do this was the final film in the franchise, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011). This is the only 'Harry Potter' movie to be Oscar nominated for the Best Costume Academy Award.

The only Harry Potter film not to feature Mark Williams.

The first of eight movies based on the Harry Potter book series by J.K. Rowling.

Despite many instances of Harry being noted as a "great wizard" Harry does not in fact cast a single spell during the entire movie.

Originally Daniel Radcliffe was supposed to wear colored contact lenses to turn his naturally blue eyes green (as Harry is described in the books as having green eyes) but after suffering an allergic reaction to the lenses the decision was made to drop them, and Harry's eyes remained blue for the rest of the series. Similarly, Emma Watson was originally going to wear fake teeth (as Hermione is described as having large front teeth) but she couldn't talk clearly with them in, and the teeth were dropped. There is one scene in the film in which Radcliffe and Watson are wearing their respective contact lenses and teeth; it is the final scene in the film where the trio return home on the Hogwarts Express, which actually was the first scene that was filmed.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Trivia

Daniel Radcliffe has said that "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" is his favorite book.

Some of the portraits in Hogwarts are actually faces of production designer Stuart Craig and executive producer Mark Radcliffe.

Full-size models replaced the actors in scenes where their characters have been petrified.

Daniel Radcliffe was initially only offered £125,000 (approximately US $181,500) for this film. The actors' union, Equity, stepped in and negotiated new terms which increased his salary to roughly £2,000,000 (US $3,000,000).

During the shoot, the part of Dobby was played by a ball on a stick (he was added digitally later, of course).

Filming began three days after the release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001).

A gag from the book is rendered incomprehensible in the film, due to lack of information. While chatting with the Grangers at the bookshop, Mr. Weasley says, "I understand that other Muggles are afraid of you." This is because they are dentists.

Nurses were drafted into the production when an outbreak of head lice occurred among the young cast.

On an episode of Have I Got News for You (1990) broadcast around this film's release, the panelists discuss an article claiming that the Russian President (later Premier) Vladimir Putin was deeply disturbed and offended that Dobby the House elf seemed to have been created in his image. There is an undeniable resemblance either way.

In order to create a realistic image of the floating set of needles (knitting in The Burrow), one of the crew coerced his mother to let them film her for several hours as she did her own knitting.

Richard Harris died a few weeks before the film's release.

Shirley Henderson, who played Moaning Myrtle, is the oldest actress (age 37) to portray a Hogwarts student.

When Hagrid is escorting Harry out of Knockturn Alley, and again when Lockhart turns to show his other profile to the photographer, hardcover editions of Harry Potter books can be seen on the shelves.

According to Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling, Moaning Myrtle was a member of Ravenclaw House.

During production, Emma Watson frequently brought her pet hamster Millie on set. Unfortunately, Millie passed away shortly after shooting began. The set department for the film created a specially-made hamster coffin, complete with velvet lining and the name "Millie" engraved on the top. "I don't think a hamster has ever had a better send-off." Watson said.

The camera used by Colin Creevey is an Argus C3 Matchmatic, a cheap and very popular 35mm rangefinder camera manufactured in the USA from 1939 to 1966.

The animatronic Phoenix used to portray Fawkes looked so lifelike (despite the fact that Phoenixes are mythical creatures) that Richard Harris (Albus Dumbledore) thought it was a real living bird when he first saw it.

Richard E. Grant and Bill Nighy were considered for the role of Lucius Malfoy.

Hugh Grant was originally cast as Gilderoy Lockhart but was forced to withdraw at the last moment because of scheduling conflicts.

Zoë Wanamaker does not appear in this film as Hogwarts' flying instructor, Madam Hooch, as Wanamaker found the salary unsatisfying. Her character was written out by giving Hooch's speaking lines to McGonagall and other characters.

Christian Coulson landed the role as Tom Riddle, even though he was 23 and exceeded the 15-17 age group set for auditions.

Fourteen Ford Anglias were destroyed to create the scene where Harry and Ron crash into the Whomping Willow.

The train station interior used in the film is King's Cross in North London, whereas the exterior shot is actually St. Pancras. The two stations are adjacent to one another, but not the same building. This was done because the architecture of St. Pancras is much more visually appealing.

The set for Flourish and Blotts is a redress of the set that served as Olivander's Wand Shop in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001).

To get a sense of how nasty his character should be, Jason Isaacs had to go back and watch Tom Felton's performance in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001).

A cinema manager in Stavanger, Norway reported that the film was making his younger patrons ill. Evidently many children who had overindulged on sweets and popcorn were throwing up when Ron begins vomiting giant slugs. "It is not a particularly fun task for our employees to have to wash away the sick," he said.

A story circulated that Emma Watson broke her left wrist during filming and that you can just see a little bit of the cast under her sleeve in some scenes, but it turned out to be false.

The tapestries hanging in the Gryffindor Common Room are copies of the "Lady and the Unicorn" series, a set of 16th century tapestries that are now displayed in the Cluny Museum in Paris.

The Weasleys' car registration number is 7990 TD.

All four of director Chris Columbus's children appear in this movie. Eleanor Columbus plays Susan Bones (also plays her in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)), Brendan Columbus plays a boy in study hall, Violet Columbus plays the little girl with flowers, and Isabella Columbus plays the little girl in the bookstore.

In the UK, this became the first movie to achieve a million DVD sales in its first weekend.

Tickets for the film went on sale in Britain more than a month before the film was due to open.

The Weasley's car is a Ford Anglia. This is actually the same color and model car that author J.K. Rowling and her best friend from school used to ride around in when they were younger. She used the car for the book, and later the movie, out of her fond memories driving in it.

The salute that Snape and Lockhart, and Harry and Draco, make during their Dueling Club session, is a modified version of the salute made in fencing.

Through advance ticket sales at Odeon cinemas, the film generated more than £1 million (roughly 200,000 tickets) before its release in the UK. An additional £8 million was generated through preview showings at UK cinemas (both Odeon and non-Odeon).

Kate Duchêne, who plays Miss Hardbroom on the TV series The Worst Witch (1998) was reportedly offered a role in the movie but supposedly declined.

Due to schedule conflicts, John Williams was not able to deliver a fully elaborated score. Composer-arranger William Ross was hired to adapt Williams' material to complete the film's score and was subsequently conducting the orchestra during the recording sessions.

The film earned over $88 million in the US on its opening weekend, which at the time placed it third in the all-time biggest opening behind Spider-Man (2002) and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001).

Robbie Coltrane had to turn down a part in The West Wing (1999) to reprise his role as Hagrid.

Many Harry Potter fans went to see Scooby-Doo (2002) just to see a trailer for this film.

The title used by the crew to disguise the shoot (and printed on the clapper boards) was "Incident on 57th Street", the title of a 1973 Bruce Springsteen song.

Young Hagrid is played by Martin Bayfield, who stands in for Robbie Coltrane as his height double in all the Potter films. His voice is dubbed by Coltrane, for the sake of consistency.

The second of eight movies based on the Harry Potter book series by J.K. Rowling.

The opal necklace, which plays an important role in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009), can briefly be glimpsed inside a display case in Borgin and Burkes' shop in Knockturn Alley when Harry first enters.

Jude Law was deemed too young to play Gilderoy Lockhart.

During the Quidditch Match, some of the music used while Harry and Draco chase the Golden Snitch was used during the speeder chase scene in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. John Williams did both scores.

One of only two 'Harry Potter' films not to be nominated for an Academy Award (Oscar) in some category, the other being Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007).

Many people think that Professor Gilderoy Lockhart is a character based on JK Rowling's ex-husband, but she has said on her official website that Lockhart is based in an egocentric person that she really dislikes, but he is not her ex-husband.

Although based on the second shortest book, this is the longest of the films. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), which is based on the longest book, is the second shortest of the films.

Sally Mortemore was cut from the film as Hogwarts Librarian Madam Irma Pince. She only appears in the background and briefly at the staff table during dinner scenes.

During post-production, producer David Heyman went to visit Richard Harris in the hospital. Though he was very weak from his illness, Harris insisted that the role of Dumbledore not be recast. Sadly, Harris passed away shortly before production was to begin on the next film, necessitating a recast.

On an episode of 8 Out of 10 Cats (2005), Alan Cumming revealed that he had been offered a part in the film, but when he learned from his agent how much more money Rupert Grint, with whom he shares an agent, would be getting paid he refused to sign on as he would not agree to be paid less than a child actor.

Foreign language translations had to change Tom Marvolo Riddle's name so that an appropriate anagram could be formed from "I am Lord Voldemort." In Spanish, his name became "Tom Sorvolo Ryddle," which transforms into "Soy Lord Voldemort." In French, his name is "Tom Elvis Jedusor," which becomes "Je suis Voldemort." In Dutch, his name is "Marten Asmodom Vilijn" which is an anagram for "Mijn naam is Voldemort". In Turkish the name is "Tom Marvoldo Riddle" which makes up "Adim Lord Voldemort". In Brazilian Portuguese the name is "Tom Servolo Riddle" which makes up "Eis Lord Voldemort". In Danish, his name is "Romeo G. Detlev Jr." which makes up "Jeg er Voldemort". In Italian his name is "Tom Orvoloson Riddle", which makes up "Son io Lord Voldemort". In Finnish his name is "Tom Gus Mervolo Dolder", which makes up "Ego sum Lord Voldemort".

The "Let's just hope Mr. Potter will always be around to save the day" dialogue (see quotes) was improvised by Daniel Radcliffe and Jason Isaacs.

The script originally said that Hermione would hug Harry and Ron in the final scene. As the then 11-year-old Emma Watson was embarrassed about having to hug the boys in front of the entire cast, Chris Columbus allowed her to change the scene so that Hermione just hugs Harry then starts to hug Ron but the two get embarrassed and resolve to only shake hands. Watson also stated in a recent interview that she kept letting Daniel Radcliffe go too quickly, so the film was "frozen" for a few seconds to make the hug look like it lasted longer than it actually did. Her hesitation with Ron is also taken by fans as a precursor to the relationship that will develop between the two characters.

When Lucius Malfoy tries to curse Harry at the end, he mutters,"Avada..." As mentioned in the 4th book, this is the beginning of an Unforgivable Curse named Avada Kedavra, or the killing curse.

In a bit of foreshadowing that is only seen in the movie version, Lucius Malfoy takes one book out of Ginny Weasley's cauldron, but drops two back in.

Although the subplot which involved Percy Weasley and Penelope Clearwater (when Ginny discovered them kissing and promised not to tell anybody) was cut, whilst Nearly Headless Nick is on his way to the Great Hall, he does say: "Hello Percy, Ms Clearwater," to the couple as they walk out.

When Hagrid charges into Dumbledore's office to defend Harry, he is carrying a dead rooster in his hands. This is in reference to a scene in the book (cut from the movie) where Hagrid finds all the roosters dead. The sound of a cock-crow is fatal to a basilisk.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Trivia

In order to acquaint himself with his three lead actors, director Alfonso Cuarón had each of them write an essay about their characters, from a first-person point of view. Emma Watson, in true Hermione fashion, went a little overboard and wrote a 16-page essay. Daniel Radcliffe wrote a simple one-page summary, and Rupert Grint never even turned his in.

Ian McKellen turned down the role of Dumbledore. Having appeared as Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings, he said, "I had enough trouble living up to one legend. Two would be too much to hope for."

Alfonso Cuarón coached Daniel Radcliffe in one scene where the latter had to act awed: "Pretend you're seeing Cameron Diaz in a G-string". It worked.

Alfonso Cuarón had the idea that when the dementors approached the Hogwarts Express the rain would turn to ice, however, due to his thick Spanish accent the visual effects team misheard "ice" as "eyes". They went as far as to draft a storyboard which depicted eyes falling from the sky, which they presented to a stunned Cuarón, who instantly corrected their mistake.

Gary Oldman says he accepted the role of Sirius Black because he "needed the work". He hadn't acted for over a year. His last film was Sin (2003), which was filmed in 2002.

A clause in Alfonso Cuarón's contract forbade the director from cursing in front of the kids on set.

Aware of his fondness for music, Gary Oldman presented Daniel Radcliffe with a bass guitar as a gift when they met.

Alfonso Cuarón had never read the Harry Potter books or seen the first two movies when he was offered the job of director.

During the scene where we first meet Buckbeak the Hippogriff, just after Ron pushes Harry forward there is a shot of the animal pooping. The CGI team believes this might be the first example of a CGI animal doing this, but the BBC miniseries Walking with Dinosaurs (1999) had done it first.

Alfonso Cuarón had an idea for there to be tiny people inhabiting Hogwarts, and jumping on piano keys in one scene. J.K. Rowling firmly vetoed it, saying tiny people were completely foreign to the world of her books.

During the filming of the sleeping bag scene, director Alfonso Cuarón and Alan Rickman played a practical joke on Daniel Radcliffe by hiding a remote-control-operated Whoopee Cushion in his sleeping bag. According to Cuarón, Daniel tried really hard to stay in character while everyone else was laughing.

It was Alfonso Cuarón's idea to have a Hogwarts Choir singing as the students enter the school, and he suggested using "Double, Double Toil and Trouble" from William Shakespeare's Macbeth. John Williams agreed, so the tune - and lyrics - ended up being used throughout the film, titled "Double Trouble". The Shakespeare/Macbeth motif went so far that that the film was marketed under the tagline "Something wicked this way comes".

Azkaban Prison, though mentioned, never actually appears in the film. Nonetheless, concept art was created by both conceptual artist Andrew Williamson and production designer Stuart Craig. Both sketches depict Azkaban as a triangular stone fortress built on the edge of a giant waterfall. When Azkaban is seen for the first time in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) the filmmakers looked to these sketches and ultimately decided to keep the triangular design but relocated the prison to an island in the middle of the ocean (closer to how it was described in the book).

The effects team spent six months creating the dementors. Originally, Alfonso Cuarón wasn't thrilled with the idea of using CGI and wanted to use more traditional techniques such as puppetry. The filmmakers tried a basic technique with a dementor puppet floating in the breeze but weren't satisfied with the way it looked. Puppeteer Basil Twist showed them a technique that involved putting the puppet in water and shooting it in slow motion with the film reversed. The filmmakers liked the way it looked but realized that this would be an impossible task, so in the end they decided to use CGI to create the dementors.

Shot entirely on wide-angle lenses. The length of the lenses ranged between 14-24mm and never beyond that. Alfonso Cuarón insisted on the wide-angles because he wanted to let the audience see the foreground and the background.

The tattoos on Sirius Black's body and hands are borrowed from Russian prison gangs. They are markings which identify the person as a man to be feared and respected.

The set for the sequence where Professor Lupin teaches Harry to defend against the dementors previously served as Dumbledore's office in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002).

Professor Dumbledore seemingly stalls the executioner by saying that he needs to sign the execution order, and that he has "a very long name". In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), his full name is revealed to be Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.

Dawn French, who plays the Fat Lady in this film (but not in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)) is the wife of Lenny Henry, who voiced the shrunken head on the Knight Bus.

Ron's fear of spiders was explained by author J.K. Rowling as stemming from an early trauma, when his practical joker brothers, Fred and George, tormented him with spiders during his infancy.

Emma Thompson accepted the role of Professor Trelawney to impress her four-year-old daughter, Gaia Wise. Tilda Swinton was originally offered the role but declined.

The last Harry Potter film to be released on VHS.

First film in the franchise to have rainy scenes at Hogwarts.

Dudley Dursley has no lines. He only laughs at the TV and gives two gasps of surprise.

Honeydukes "is floor-to-ceiling psychedelia" and includes Mexican skulls made of sugar. The cast was told that the Honeydukes candy was lacquer-coated, when in fact it wasn't, to prevent candy from disappearing between takes.

Illusionist Paul Kieve served as a consultant. He taught magic to several members of the cast including Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson (Harry and Hermione) and worked extensively to create physical magical effects. He is the first illusionist to have worked on any of the series of films. He also made a cameo appearance in the film in the scene in the Three Broomsticks pub.

Executive producer Chris Columbus (who directed the first two films) offered the role of director to Alfonso Cuarón after watching Cuarón's A Little Princess (1995).

In the scene where Harry is given the Marauder's Map by the Weasley twins, the name "Moony" is misspelled as "Mooney". While not really a mistake, there is still an interesting connection. The film's visual effects supervisor is named Karl Mooney. The spelling was changed deliberately for the in-joke.

Prior to its release, material related to the film was labeled with the code title "Radiator Blues".

Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (frequent collaborator of director Alfonso Cuarón) was supposed to be working on this film, but due to scheduling conflicts he was replaced by Michael Seresin.

The symbols under Sirius Black's picture on the Wanted Poster translate as "more or less human."

As part of a promotion by the toy company LEGO, in the United States, some cinemas handed out free mini-knight bus LEGO kits with the purchase of a ticket.

Michael Gambon admitted later on that he saw "no point" in reading the books, so during the whole course of playing the role of Dumbledore, he never read any of them.

The Hufflepuff Seeker whom Harry competes against during the Quidditch match is Cedric Diggory. Diggory is his rival again a year later during the Tri-Wizard Tournament.

The only Harry Potter film not to gross over $800 million worldwide.

Between takes, Emma Watson liked to play with director Alfonso Cuarón's hair because it was so long. She even put it in pigtails. "I'm his unofficial hairstylist," Emma said.

Production designer Stuart Craig has revealed that the appearance and location of Hagrid's Hut as seen in this film and subsequent films was closer to his original design for the hut, which had been compromised for the first two films due to the scenes being filmed in a small patch of land outside the studio, rather than on location in Scotland.

David Thewlis was originally considered to play Professor Quirrell in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001).

Last film in the series to be dubbed into Icelandic.

Two actresses in the film have played the Greek goddess Thetis: Dame Maggie Smith in Clash of the Titans (1981) and Julie Christie in Troy (2004).

Filming was halted following the vandalization of the train used as the Hogwarts Express.

The set for Honeydukes was previously used as Olivander's Wand Shop in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001), and Flourish and Blotts in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002).

Marc Forster was offered the job of directing this film but declined and did Finding Neverland (2004) instead.

When we see the Marauder's Map for the first time, the name 'Newt Scamander' can be seen. In the Harry Potter universe, he wrote the book "Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them", but isn't a teacher at Hogwarts.

Because he would be overseeing this film's post-production work, director Alfonso Cuarón declined the offer to direct Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005). Mike Newell was then chosen by Warner Brothers.

The German subsidary of Warner Bros. tried to cut down the film (as they did with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)) to secure a more commercial "Not under 6" rating. They submitted several versions but all were rejected by the German ratings board FSK for this rating. In the end the uncut version was released with a "Not under 12" rating.

Broke UK box office records when it grossed £5.3 million in its opening day of release on 31 May 2004, making it the biggest opening day and single day of all time.

Warner Brothers supplied ushers at cinemas with night vision goggles to prevent illegal recording and pirating of the film.

The rating in the Netherlands for this film is "not under 9". This rating was created especially for the film, since it was judged to be too scary for 6 year olds and the next rating, "not under 12", would exclude too much of the target audience.

Sir Cadogan, played by Paul Whitehouse, was cut almost completely out of the film. You do still see Sir Cadogan jump into the shot of Ron, Harry and Hermione right after Ginny tells them the Fat Lady is gone. He appears in a picture behind them.

A fire near the Glenfinnan viaduct in Scotland delayed filming of the Hogwarts Express scenes for a day.

Two Knight Buses were built: one for exterior shots and one for interior shots. The exterior of the bus was created by taking an ordinary double-decker London bus, adding a level, and painting it purple.

Ron's dream about spiders making him tap-dance is a two-in-one reference of the next book. In 'Goblet of Fire' there is an unforgivable curse where you can control what someone does, taught by Professor Moody. He makes a spider tap-dance on the desk.

When Chris Columbus was still slated to direct, Robson Green was considered for the role of Sirius Black.

Two Persian red cats were used for the role of Crookshanks: Crackerjack and Pumpkin.

Much of the filming was done in Scotland, so the filmmakers wanted to be sure that a Highland Cow, a breed of cattle native to Scotland, appeared in the film. The large, hairy animal with big horns can be seen in front of a shop in Hogsmeade when Ron and Hermione go and look for Harry after he leaves the pub.

Among the difficulties associated with filming in Scotland was the amount of rain that fell during the shoot. During the breaks in filming, helicopters delivered large bags of gravel to the set in order to prevent it from washing out. Many of the filmmakers were concerned as to how this would affect the look of the film, although director Alfonso Cuarón and cinematographer Michael Seresin insisted that it was the best look that they could have come up with.

An additional set was built for the candy shop: the cellar. Not used in the film, it was included in a special feature on the DVD release that allowed viewers to explore the shop.

Subplot involving the Sneakoscope concept from the novel, as well as an attempted attack on Ron in his sleep at Hogwarts by Sirius Black, were filmed (and can be partially found as additional scenes on some DVD versions) but ultimately scrapped from the finished version. Oddly enough, a small bit from the latter, Harry's lines about missing a chance to capture Black, was still featured prominently in most promotional trailers. (Source: 2-Disc DVD extras & trailers).

After the death of Richard Harris, many actors were considered for the vacant role of Albus Dumbledore. Christopher Lee was in the frame for a while, and there was a rumor (reported in many newspapers) that Ian McKellen was also considered. The Harris family wanted Richard's longtime friend and peer Peter O'Toole for the role but there were studio concerns over insuring O'Toole for the remaining five films. Richard Attenborough also lobbied for the role but was ultimately turned down.

This film actually marks the second time that Michael Gambon has replaced Richard Harris. Harris had previously played Inspector Jules Maigret in Maigret (1988), while Gambon took over the role in the television series Maigret (1992).

Gary Oldman and Timothy Spall have both played the William Shakespeare-created character of Rosencrantz; Oldman in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990) and Spall in Hamlet (1996).

The script for this film makes no mention of Professor Flitwick. Wanting to keep Warwick Davis involved, director Alfonso Cuarón came up with the idea of having him play the choir director. In the next film, Mike Newell liked the look of the choir director and wanted to keep using it. Therefore, the choir director became Flitwick, and his new look has been used for all the subsequent films.

Although most of the Hogwarts scenes were filmed on studio sets (unlike the previous films which were shot largely on location), the geometric staircase at St. Paul's Cathedral, London, was used as the staircase that leads to the Divination classroom.

The design of the large clock which functions as a visual motif in this film appears to be based on the Old Town Clock (also called the "Orloj" - pronounced "OR-LOY") in Prague, Czech Republic. The Orloj tells not only the time, but shows the month, the sign of the Zodiac, and shows the relative positions of the moon and sun.

Author J.K. Rowling had two Godfathers, named Stanley and Ernie. These names are used for the conductor and driver of the Knight Bus early in the film.

The lyrics to the song playing in the opening feast at Hogwarts come from William Shakespeare's famous play Macbeth. The lines in the play are spoken by witches, who are called the "Weird Sisters". In the novels, the Weird Sisters are a popular wizarding band.

The Dursleys have three television sets in their house; one in the living room, one near the dining table, and one in the sunroom. While not mentioned in the film, it is explained in the book that Dudley complains about the long walk from the fridge to the television in the living room.

During the "Time Turner" sequence, you can hear the sound of a clock's second hand ticking.

The only film in the series where Voldemort does not appear in some form.

Although the stone circle seen in the Hogwarts Grounds was a creation of the filmmakers, it was based upon actual stone circles found throughout Britain (i.e. Stonehenge). The stones were created at Leavesden and were delivered by helicopter to Glencoe, Scotland, where they were set into holes dug into the ground. They looked so realistic that the young actors ultimately asked director Alfonso Cuarón if the stones were the reason why he picked that particular location. "It's always gratifying when your work is mistaken for the real thing!" said art director Alan Gilmore.

Other directors reportedly considered for this installment of the Harry Potter series included Callie Khouri and Kenneth Branagh, star of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002).

The film was offered to director Guillermo del Toro but he opted to do Hellboy (2004) instead.

The third of eight movies based on the Harry Potter book series by J.K. Rowling.

Ian Brown: the singer (formerly of The Stone Roses) appears briefly in the bar at the start of the movie reading "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking. He was originally cast as the pub landlord, but the role was cut right down due to timing issues.

Annalisa Bugliani, Tess Bu Cuarón: Director Alfonso Cuarón's wife and their daughter are the mother and baby in the portrait next to the Fat Lady.

Alfonso Cuarón: the man seated holding two lit candles when Harry enters Madame Rosmerta's Tavern.

Alfonso Cuarón: [Mexico] References to director Cuarón's Mexican nationality abound. On the fountain in the courtyard in front of the clock tower, there are several statues of eagles eating snakes, as on the National Seal of Mexico. Also, among the many candies offered at Honeydukes are skulls made of sugar, which are a popular treat in Mexico on "El Dia de los Muertos," or the Day of the Dead. And, after Dumbledore says his final lines outside the infirmary, he goes down the stairs humming "La Raspa", the Mexican Hat Dance.

Early in the film, Harry sees a newspaper article with a photograph of the Weasley family in Egypt. Though it is never again mentioned, this is a very important plot point in the book. While on an inspection of Azkaban the Minister of Magic had a copy of that paper, and gave it to Sirius Black who recognized Peter Pettigrew disguised as Scabbers. This is what made him decide to break out of Azkaban, track down Scabbers at Hogwarts, and take his revenge by killing him.

Although the Marauders' Map, created by Masters Moony, Padfoot, Prongs, and Wormtail plays a large part in the film, the identities of the first three are not made clear. This is surprising as this was important to understanding this plot in the book. Moony was Lupin, who was supported by his three friends. These learned "Animagus" shape shifting techniques to sympathize with him. James Potter was Prongs the Stag (a trait passed on to the Patronus of his son Harry), Sirius Black was Padfoot the Dog, and Peter Pettigrew was, more obviously, Wormtail the Rat.

The ending of the film, in which Sirius escapes on Hagrid's hippogriff, is actually a reversal of the opening of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001), in which Hagrid arrives on a flying motorcycle which, the book reveals, he borrowed from Sirius.

Lupin says that he was very close with Harry's mother. This may seem at odds with the book's story that Lily Evans was a close friend of Lupin's rival Severus Snape. However, J.K. Rowling revealed that after graduating from Hogwarts, Lupin still found it difficult to find paying work, because nobody wanted to employ a werewolf. James and Lily, therefore, financially supported him.

Despite featuring the idea of a mass murder as the back story, this is *arguably* the only book/movie in the series where no person dies in the story itself. The argument is that, while the villain in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) was destroyed, he was a ghostly automaton who was, perhaps, never alive to begin with.

In the scene where Harry sees Peter Pettigrew's name on the map, but does not actually see him in the hallway, the sound of a rat scurrying about is faintly audible.

After the Fat Lady reports that Sirius Black is in the castle, there's a short scene of the large front gate closing up. As it does, you see a full moon in the sky and hear Lupin's wolf-form howling.

Lucius Malfoy was supposed to appear in the film at Buckbeak's execution and be outraged when he had escaped. However Jason Isaacs was unavailable for filming.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Trivia

Alfonso Cuarón was offered the chance to direct this installment in the series, but declined as he would still be working on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004).

Safety divers swam in with scuba regulators to allow them to breathe without having to surface. These scenes were shot in a huge purpose-built tank with a blue-screen background. Daniel Radcliffe alone logged around 41 hours 38 minutes underwater during the course of filming. At one point during training he inadvertently signaled that he was drowning, sending the crew into a huge panic to bring him back up to surface.

The newspaper headline "Harry Potter and the Triwizard Tournament" was considered as the title of the fourth book

Mike Newell decided against the studio's original idea of adapting the extremely long book into two separate films to be released several months apart, figuring that he could cut enough of the book's bulky subplots to make a workable film. It was Alfonso Cuarón, the director of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), who convinced him.

At least one full-scale dragon was constructed on set, which could even blow real fire.

Daniel Radcliffe suffered two ear infections following the underwater filming.

The inscriptions on the Riddle's family tombstone had to be digitally changed at the last minute after fans of the books, having seen promotion stills released from the graveyard scene, pointed out that none of the Riddle names on the tombstone referred to Voldemort (a.k.a. Tom Marvolo Riddle), as the filmmakers erroneously thought, but to his dad, Tom Riddle (Sr.), his grandfather, Thomas Riddle, and his grandmother, Mary Riddle, all three of whom were killed by Tom Marvolo Riddle in 1943.

Mike Newell staged a brawl with one of the twins, both to demonstrate what he wanted for a scene between the twins, and also to undermine his own "authority figure" status ("They were calling me 'sir'!") The fight got so intense that he fractured a rib in the process.

The elves Dobby and Winky were cut due to time constraints. However, if you watch carefully in the first campsite scene, right after Ginny points to something and says "Look!" you can see two House Elves riding on llamas. They go by very fast, so they're hard to see.

Mike Newell turned down directing The Constant Gardener (2005) to direct this film.

As in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), full-size models were used in scenes which required teen actors to keep completely still for a lengthy period of time.

Over 3,000 girls turned up at the auditions for the role of Cho Chang in London on 7 February 2004.

Mike Newell is the first British director the film series has had.

A digital "spot removing" technique (which had previously been used for such TV shows as Desperate Housewives (2004)) was applied in post-production to clear up some of the more severe teen skin problems, since make-up tested poorly for close-up shots in particular.

Rumors on the Internet of a Scottish actor being cast as Viktor Krum were halted when it was announced that, as originally planned by the producers, a Bulgarian would in fact play the part. Perhaps these rumors arose because the Bulgarian was discovered in England and not in Sofia, where there was a casting call for the part of the International Quidditch Champion. Stanislav Ianevski, a Bulgarian student living in London, has been cast in the role.

Mike Newell only received $1 million to direct (whereas Chris Columbus received $10 million plus a percentage of the gross to direct Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)).

During the underwater filming Daniel Radcliffe, a couple of the cast members, and all of the underwater crew posed for a photo which he later sent out as a Christmas card with Rudolph noses and antlers Photoshopped on everyone's faces.

Ray Winstone and Billy Connolly were considered for the role of Mad-Eye Moody.

Rosamund Pike was the first choice for the role of Rita Skeeter but declined.

Carole Bouquet was Mike Newell's first choice for the role of Madame Maxime but declined because Studio Canal (the studio she was contracted) refused to give permission for her to negotiate for the role. Others considered for the role were Catherine Deneuve, Audrey Tautou and Emmanuelle Seigner.

Mike Newell originally decided not to have the make-up on Ralph Fiennes to give a more scary Voldemort. But he changed his mind after seeing a minimal make-up design by Nick Dudman. To complement the make-up, Fiennes shaved his head bald as well as his armpits.

As Ron, Harry and Hermione are talking in the great hall, before George and Fred attempt to enter their names in the Goblet, Hermione is reading a book. We can't see the title, but the cover features the harlequin pattern of the UK editions of the Harry Potter novels.

John Williams passed on scoring this movie in favor of Memoirs of a Geisha (2005).

While filming his scenes as Professor Dumbledore, Michael Gambon wore street clothes under his flimsy costume. He also kept his cigarettes tucked into his socks.

The tune you hear the teens sing to the school song, "Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts" was written by Mike Newell. The lyrics first appeared in the first novel, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone". (Traditionally the song can be sung to any tune the singer happens to like.)

Stanislav Ianevski, who plays Viktor Krum, has only two lines in the entire film totaling 20 words.

The kids had around three weeks of dancing practice for the Yule-ball waltz. Daniel Radcliffe however, appears in almost every scene of the entire film, and thus had only four days to prepare for this task. In several interviews he's given that reason for why his dancing is shown mainly from the waist up (to avoid showing his fumbling feet!).

The film's reels were shipped to cinemas under its working title "Happy Days" to deter potential pirates.

Tolga Safer was one of the finalists for the role of Viktor Krum. He was subsequently called back and instead cast as Karkaroff's aide, a role created specifically for him.

In the first draft of the script, a subplot featuring the Weasley twins and Ludo Bagman, the head of the Ministry's sports department, was featured prominently. In fact, it was reported that Martin Landham was cast as Bagman. In the subsequent drafts, the subplot was dropped, and the character of Ludo Bagman makes no credited appearance in the movie.

It took two days to film Ralph Fiennes's cameo.

The first task with the dragon took over 140 special effect shots.

The line Moody uses "I know stories about your father that would curl even your greasy hair" is actually a line from the book but in a different scenario: Rita Skeeter says it to Hermione about Ludo Bagman (a character omitted from the movie).

Katie Leung hadn't intended to audition for the role of Cho Chang. Her father had told her where the audition was being held and she decided to go before her shopping trip.

Heart Evangelista auditioned for the role of Cho Chang.

The first names of the parents of Tom Riddle (sr.) - Thomas and Mary, as written on the gravestone - are not mentioned in the books (but do still come from J.K. Rowling).

Costume designer Jany Temime considered Hermione's dress for the Yule Ball as the most important, comparing it to that of Cinderella. The design of the dress was changed several times before the designers were satisfied with the results. Emma Watson was very careful not to wear it more than necessary because she was afraid that she would wreck it.

This is the first Harry Potter film to receive a "PG-13" rating or its international equivalent (for sequences of fantasy violence and frightening images). The preceding films having been rated "PG" or one of its international equivalents.

Ralph Fiennes was not wearing any make up to cover his nose. In order to make the character scarier, film editors digitally removed it. Also, the "red, snake-like eyes" the novel describes were not added, due to the actor's thought that the expression in his eyes would provide a better idea of Lord Voldemort's insanity and malignity.

Features one of the largest underwater sets ever constructed. It has the capacity of up to 500,000 liters (132,000 gallons) of water. The largest underwater set constructed was for The Abyss (1989), which had a capacity of 7,000,000 gallons.

The animated hedges in the Third Task were based on Stanley Kubrick's abandoned idea for the hedge maze chase sequence in The Shining (1980). "The Shining" was written by Stephen King, who is an avid fan of "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling.

The rock band at the Yule Ball is comprised mostly of members of Pulp and Radiohead. In the run-up to the movie, a Canadian folk group called the Wyrd Sisters filed a $40-million lawsuit against Warner Brothers, the North American distributor of the film, Jarvis Cocker from Pulp and Jonny Greenwood and Phil Selway of Radiohead for the use of their group's name. In the book, the band is called the "Weird Sisters" after the witches in William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" but was reportedly renamed the "Wyrd Sisters" for this film. Before the movie was released, however, Warner Brothers removed all references to either name for the band. (In a deleted scene included on the DVD, Professor Flitwick introduces the band as "The band that needs no introduction.") Nevertheless, the Wyrd Sisters moved for an injunction in a Canadian court to prevent distribution of the film in Canada. This motion was dismissed by an Ontario judge.

Early drafts had Ron's estranged brother Percy appearing in a key supporting role but it was written out in the final drafts. In an interview, Chris Rankin, who plays Percy, revealed that his contract of the franchise stipulates that he must appear in four films; the first three, with the option of appearing in either this movie or the next one, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007). Given the fact that Percy appears much longer in the latter, he opted out of the film in favour of appearing in the next one.

When the contestants enter the arena for the third task, the Beauxbatons girls in the audience are dancing the Macarena.

In one of the first takes of Hermione's "Cinderella moment", Emma Watson actually tripped in that fancy dress and fell down the stairs.

First film in the series not to include any scenes from a Quidditch match in Hogwarts. No Quidditch matches were mentioned in the book due to the pitch being used for the maze, this is pointed out soon after the students go back to school.

Icelandic moviegoers (particularly the younger crowd) tended to crack up unexpectedly in theaters when Rita Skeeter first introduces herself. Apparently the audience weren't expecting the pronunciation of her last name, Skeeter, to sound so close to the Icelandic verb "skíta", which happens to be a rather crude word for defecating.

Brendan Gleeson and Daniel Radcliffe were both in The Tailor of Panama (2001), Radcliffe's first movie role.

The name of "Durmstrang Institute" appears to be paying homage to the "Sturm und Drang" (translation: Storm and Stress) movement in German literature. The movement, which flourished from around 1770 to 1785, was distinguished by its theme of youthful genius in rebellion against accepted standards, much like Harry and his feelings about the wizarding world's attitude toward the Dark Lord.

David Walliams was considered for the role of Barty Crouch Jr.

In the scene with Dumbledore, Harry and the Pensieve, pay close attention to the glass cabinet Dumbledore approaches while explaining the Pensieve. In the top left corner is a 3D model of what becomes an important symbol in the final novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

After the second task, as Dumbledore magnifies his voice, his wand can be seen with a white band on it that bears the mark of a straight line atop a few lines in a criss cross pattern all atop a circle, which will all be important plot elements in future installments.

The creature Mad-Eye Moody torments in his "dark arts" class (a spider in the book and the original script) is virtually identical to a real animal: the tailless whip-scorpion. Tailless whip-scorpions, of which some 130 species are known, fall in their own taxonomic order 'Amblypygi' under Class 'Arachnida', and are neither scorpions or spiders. Though Moody avers that this one is deadly, real Amblypygids are quite harmless (though almost as big).

This film features three actors who have played Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Robert Hardy played him in War and Remembrance (1988), among several other films. Timothy Spall played the part in Jackboots on Whitehall (2010) and The King's Speech (2010). Brendan Gleeson played him in Into the Storm (2009).

This is the first movie to not show the Dursleys. They feature in the book in the very beginning, where they are visited by the Weasley family who come to pick up Harry for the Quidditch World Cup. This was omitted from the movie to save screen time for the main plot.

The fourth of eight movies based on the Harry Potter book series by J.K. Rowling.

Mike Newell was not aware that Alan Rickman wore black contact lenses for the role of Snape until one day, when he was complimenting Alan on the amazing shade of his eyes, Alan leaned over and popped one of the lenses out.

In the books, Parvati Patil of Gryffindor has an identical twin Padma Patil of Ravenclaw, to illustrate the unpredictability of the Sorting Hat. In the films; however, Parvati (Shefali Chowdhury) and Padma (Afshan Azad) are not only both in Gryffindor but are played, surprisingly, by unrelated actresses.

The first film of the series to not open with a "Harry-centric" scene. Staying true to the book, it opens with The Riddle House, a "Voldemort-centric" scene.

The character Nigel, who appears in this film and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), does not appear in the books at all. Given his short stature, and apparent idolizing of Harry, it seems likely that he is meant to act as a substitute for Colin Creevey (from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)) and his brother Dennis (who is introduced in Goblet of Fire book).

The only Harry Potter film not to star Julie Walters.

In the movie the audience is given the impression that Beauxbatons is an all girls magical academy whereas, Durmstrang is an all boys one. In the books however both schools are co-ed, and in fact in the books the Patil twins leave Harry and Ron to spend time with boys from Beauxbatons.

When Harry is entering the maze, Mad Eye signals him that he should turn to his left. There is a wide belief that if one keeps turning left in a maze, he shall find his way out.

Director Mike Newell wanted the Dark Mark to "bubble up" out of the skin of Voldemort's followers. The makeup department achieved the effect by applying variations of a silicone skull-and-snake to each actor's arm, gradually making the mark appear more "raised and angry looking". Digital effects were then used to create the snake's movement.

In the extended version of the movie that airs on ABC Family, when Harry is questioned by Snape about stealing from his potion/ingredient closet after Snape says "Boomslang Skin?" "Lacewing Flies?" Snape shuts the door on Harry. The line "You and your little friends are brewing Polyjuice Potion, and believe me, I'm going to find out why." is omitted from this version but appears on the DVD.

In the book, Voldemort is described as having red eyes with slits for pupils. The filmmakers ultimately decided not to give Voldemort red eyes because they felt that one wouldn't be able to read the emotion in the eyes if they were modified, and therefore the character wouldn't be scary enough.

The books that form Dumbledore's library are actually phone directory books, disguised.

Scottish band Franz Ferdinand was the first choice to perform as the Weird Sisters but they declined. Due to the similarities in name, the Canadian band Wyrd Sisters attempted to stop the film's release by filing a lawsuit but unsuccessful.

According to rumors that circulated the Internet, both Rowan Atkinson and John Malkovich were considered for the role of Lord Voldemort. Both rumors were proven to be untrue.

First film in the series not to be dubbed into Icelandic (and other languages alike), where dubbing for theatrical release is limited to projects primarily aimed at children. In fact, even with different ratings of the following films, dubbing did not resume for some of those languages (like Icelandic).

Mike Newell: The voice heard on Frank Bryce's radio in the beginning of the film.

There were three characters that had big parts in the book that were completely written out of the film. These characters were: Ludo Bagman, head of the Ministry of Magic's sports department and tournament judge; Winky: the former Crouch house elf that was believed to have cast the dark mark at the Qudditch World Cup; Bertha Jorkins: a woman who was tortured by Voldemort and Wormtail to tell about the Tournament being held at Hogwarts before being killed by them. Frank Bryce walked in Voldemort and Wormtail discussing her death.

The occasional tongue flick done by the character of Barty Crouch Jr. was, in fact, not in the book at all, and was improvised, on the spot, by David Tennant. Brendan Gleeson then added the quirk to a few of his scenes as a hint to the Crouch/Moody substitution. In fact, after the second task, when "Moody" and Crouch senior are talking, Crouch's reaction to seeing Moody do this could suggest that he might suggest something about Moody's true identity.

At the Quidditch World Cup, Amos Diggory says "Parting of the ways?" to Arthur Weasley, and they separate to go to their respective tents. This is a line from the book, only in different context. In the book, Dumbledore says this to Cornelius Fudge, when Fudge refuses to admit that Voldemort has returned. For pacing reasons, this epilogue was deleted from the movie, in favor of using it as a subplot for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007).

Voldemort identifies four of his Death Eaters by name: MacNair, Crabbe, Goyle, and Lucius Malfoy. Lucius Malfoy is the father of Draco Malfoy. The Crabbe and Goyle that he names are the fathers of Draco's friends, who are also usually addressed by their last names. The last one, MacNair, is identified in the book as the would-be executioner of Buckbeak in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004).

The writing out of Dobby in this film (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)) resulted in a slightly larger role for Neville Longbottom. In this film, it is Neville, rather than Dobby, who gives Harry the gillyweed for the second task, and we later learn that this idea was given to him by Barty Crouch Jr./Professor Moody. In the book, Crouch/Moody explains that his first approach was in fact to give Neville the book where gillyweed could be found, but Harry didn't ask Neville because he wasn't supposed to ask for help so he only told Ron and Hermione what he had to do. So Moody arranged for Dobby to overhear him talking about it. This removal creates a rather uncharacteristic byproduct - Neville, who is supposed to be terrified of Professor Snape, would have had to steal the Gillyweed from Snape's store.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Trivia

Professor Umbridge, though she teaches in a classroom that has appeared in films two through four, inhabits an office vastly different from those of her predecessors. The set was redressed with "fluffy, pink filigree," including a carpet that cost £50,000 to make, and a number of plates upon which moving kittens were animated in post-production. A 24-hour photo shoot was held to photograph and film the kittens for use on these plates. Even the elegant quill which Umbridge gives Harry to write lines using his own blood was designed by the set designers.

Had the biggest first-day gross of a "Harry Potter" movie.

Much of the Ministry of Magic Atrium set design was based on the designs of London Underground.

During filming of The Order of the Phoenix, Alan Rickman banned Matthew Lewis and Rupert Grint from being within 5 meters of his new BMW, because during the making of The Goblet of Fire, they spilled milkshake in his car.

The Room of Requirement was described as a room with no beginning or end. To achieve the sense of infinity, the effects crew spent 5 months designing the room by having rotatable mirrors installed that would minimize camera and crew reflection as well as to avoid the Hall of Mirrors effect (a common term in CG). Also, the lighting underneath the grille was quite bright to generate reflection, so the floor had to be in black, cast members had to have black velvet covering their shoe soles while the crew had to wear surgical shoes to prevent treading dust onto the floor set.

The only Harry Potter film not written by Steve Kloves.

Dario Marianelli was considered as a possible composer for this film.

Evanna Lynch beat 15000 girls for the role of Luna. She was ninth in a line of 29 finalists, and when it came to viewing the audition videos, one of the producers, David Barron, stopped viewing after her audition, saying, "She is Luna." Unknown to them, Lynch actually wrote a letter directly to J.K. Rowling.

The Department of Mysteries was the first completely computer-generated set used in the series. Building the set practically was too expensive since an estimated 15000 crystal balls would have been needed, and it would have taken a lot of time to clean and set them up again between takes.

Imelda Staunton was the producer's only choice for the role of Umbridge. She and costume designer Jany Temime came up with the idea of making her dress more padded and more saturated as the film progresses. The novel describes her being physically chubby and like a toad.

Fake working title: 'Tip-Top'.

Helen McCrory was originally cast as Bellatrix Lestrange, but due to pregnancy she had to be replaced by Helena Bonham Carter. McCrory was later cast as Narcissa Malfoy, who is Bellatrix's sister, in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009).

The radish earrings worn by Luna Lovegood were actually made by Evanna Lynch (the actress portraying her).

Mira Nair and Jean-Pierre Jeunet were approached to direct the film. Both declined. Jeunet prefers projects that allow him more creative influence.

The character of Grawp was done by using a recent breakthrough in film technology, developed by Image Metrics, which allows a computer to map an actor's performance onto any character virtual or human, living or dead. The result is said to be far superior to standard hand-drawn computer graphics which are very costly and time-consuming.

Release prints were delivered to theaters with the fake title 'The Raven'.

During the breakfast scene in the Great Hall, boxes of cereal can be seen with the names Cheeri-Owls and Pixie-Puffs, with color schemes similar to those of Cheerios and Sugar Puffs boxes, respectively.

According to the original script, the character of Kreacher was not intended to be in this film at all. But after J.K. Rowling read the script, she more or less insisted on him needing to be there to avoid some serious problems with future installments of the series. Though Kreacher has no noticeable impact on the plot or story as it's presented in the film, a couple of scenes with him were added at the last minute based on this request.

Daniel Radcliffe came up with the idea that, as a gesture of respect to a teacher that Harry most certainly looked up to, he would wear a certain type of clothes that resemble the outfit worn by Prof. Lupin in his lessons from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), during his teachings. The director liked the suggestion, so that became the basis for his look during those scenes.

In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), when Ron is rescuing Harry from the Dursleys', Ron tells Harry that they were "rescuing you of course". In this film, Moody says the same thing when he rescues Harry.

Broke the Wednesday opening day record previously held by Spider-Man 2 (2004) with a 44.2 million dollar domestic gross.

Was released in 4,181 US theaters, a record for a Warner Bros. release.

Had the biggest IMAX opening ever, pulling in $1.9 million.

Harry's, Ron's and Hermione's signatures for the Dumbledore's Army roster are the same signatures seen in the US version of the books.

The most expensive set was the 200 foot-long hallway in the Ministry of Magic.

In the scene where Harry, Ron, and Hermione are discussing Harry's kiss with Cho, the three begin to crack up near the end of the scene. This was all real laughter from the three actors. The director thought it was good for the scene and kept rolling.

Padfoot, Sirius Black's canine alter-ego, was played by a Scottish Deerhound named Cleod.

The portrait in Dumbledore's office that he addresses as "Phineas" is in fact Phineas Nigellus Black, great-grandfather of Sirius Black and, by extension, Bellatrix Lestrange and Narcissa Malfoy; as well as being great-great-grandfather to Draco Malfoy and Nymphadora Tonks.

Since this film would include wand dueling at an elite level, a specific "wand choreographer" (Paul Harris, who is actually a professional dance choreographer) was brought in to design the style and technique of this highly unorthodox way of fighting. The result consists of five basic spell-casting moves, which each of the actors were then allowed to adapt slightly to fit their own character. So, for instance, Lucius Malfoy would have a very formal and somewhat 'stiff' fighting style, while Sirius Black uses a snappy and more spontaneous 'street fight' style.

The set used for Igor Karkaroff's trial scene in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) was doubled in size for Harry's trial in this film, while still protecting its symmetry.

J.K. Rowling provided over 70 names for the Black family tree tapestry, complete with details of relations between each and every member, whose were to be scorched and so on.

In the Atrium of the Ministry of Magic, many offices are seen layered upon each other. In reality, there are only two layers (floors), but at different times, different people were filmed doing different things in the offices and later with the help of computer animation, put together to get the illusion of several layers of office.

Kenneth Branagh was originally set to return as Prof. Gilderoy Lockhart in a brief cameo. Originally, Harry was to encounter his former professor in an insane asylum while visiting Ron's dad Arthur Weasley at St. Mungo's. The scene was meant to establish Lockhart as irrevocably scarred from his backfired curse in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), as well as the insanity of Neville's parents after being tortured by Bellatrix Lestrange. The scene was cut for pacing and budget issues, as it would have necessitated building a new set.

The walls of Professor Umbridge's office are covered with kitten plates. In the image on one of the plates, the wall behind the kitten has a kitten plate on it.

In late 2005, Anna Friel lobbied for the role of Tonks so that she can work with her real-life partner David Thewlis. She was turned down by the producers.

The studio considered moving the entire production out to Barradov in Prague from Leavesden to take advantage of its incentives but the move was vetoed by Alan Radcliffe and David Heyman, primarily on security issues.

When Sirius joins Harry in the room with the Black family tree, to the lower left of the door is a Starbucks logo. The "siren" (a mermaid with two tails) has been stylized to be in keeping with the decor of the room, but she is wearing a crown and holding both her fins aloft like the Starbucks logo.

Dumbledore's line "Don't fight him, Harry, you can't win" was featured prominently in just about every trailer and TV-spot, yet it is nowhere in the final version of the film, nor in the DVD's extended scenes.

Branko Tomovic auditioned for the part of the Azkaban Death Eater, after he was seen in the Serbian-German film Love of Fate (2005) opposite Predrag Bjelac who played Igor Karkaroff in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005). Branko was not cast in Harry Potter but he was later given the lead part in the British short Inbetween (2008) which was also produced by Harry Potter producer David Barron.

Although based on the longest book in the seven book series, this is the second shortest movie in the Harry Potter film series. The longest film, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), is based on the second shortest book.

When they discover the Room of Requirement, Ron asks if it could become a bathroom if the user really needed it. This is a reference to the novel 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'. In it, the Room of Requirement is mentioned for the first time, having become a lavatory for Dumbledore.

Rose Windsor, a member of the British Royal Family, worked - and is credited as - an Art Department Assistant on this film. Her wedding to a member of the Royal Family was featured in OK! magazine - largely due to Prince William Windsor's girlfriend Kate Middleton attending her wedding. She specifically asked to be credited on Harry Potter as 'Rose Windsor' rather than her full Royal title.

The first Harry Potter film to be released in IMAX 3-D.

Final cinema film of Timothy Bateson.

Several members of the Black family are named after astronomical objects. You can see some of the names in the scene when Sirius and Harry are in the family tree room. Sirius, Regulus, Andromeda, Arcturus, Bellatrix, and Cygnus are the ones that can be seen.

The fifth of eight movies based on the Harry Potter book series by J.K. Rowling.

When Dumbledore's Army first meets at the Hog's Head Inn, there is a bartender accompanied by a goat, played by Jim McManus, and credited as "Barman." This character is later identified as Aberforth Dumbledore, the Professor's younger brother. This character returns in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011), and is played by Ciarán Hinds.

J.K. Rowling had been a schoolteacher before writing the Potter books, and this film features some references to the British educational system. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, students at age 16 were given Ordinary Level (O-Level) exams in all their major subjects, for which they can receive their General Certificate of Education. This corresponds to the Ordinary Wizarding Level (O.W.L.) exams given at Hogwarts. Students who planned to go on to university stayed on two more years to take their Advanced (A-Level) Exams, which roughly correspond to N.E.W.T. (Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Test) Exams.

The family of English footballer Theo Walcott makes a cameo in this movie. Theo himself was due to appear, but his commitments to Arsenal F.C. made it impossible.

The character of Nigel was created strictly for the movie; he does not appear in the books. However, he combines elements of Colin Creevey and Dennis Creevey.

Since Alastor Moody (Brendan Gleeson) has a prosthetic leg, he could not balance properly on broomstick, being unable to use the stirrups. Instead, his broom has posts at the front where he rests his legs, a seat which allows him to lean backwards, and a control stick for his hands. The arrangement is very similar to automobiles made for double-amputees, which have hand controls instead of pedals.

Tonk's hair was kept purple instead of pink (like in the books) because the filmmakers felt that the colour pink was associated with Umbridge.

According to Daniel Radcliffe, Devon Murray (Seamus) has the record of most prop wands broken on set with ten during filming.

During filming of the stand-off scene in the Ministry of Magic, Matthew Lewis suffered a perforated eardrum after accidentally moving his head while Helena Bonham Carter had her wand in his ear "..as a sort of Q-Tip...[to] sort of torture [his ear]" Carter said. Lewis was deaf in that ear for a few days afterward, though he laughed about the incident in interviews.

This film reveals several characters to be related to Sirius Black, most notably his cousin Bellatrix Lestrange, whose sister (Narcissa) is Draco Malfoy's mother. One connection that is not made in this film is that Nymphadora Tonks is family as well (first cousin, once removed), as her mother (Andromeda) is sister to both Bellatrix Lestrange and Narcissa Malfoy. Andromeda's name can be seen on the tapestry in Sirious' house, but her portrait has been burned off; the book explains that her family disowned her for marrying a Muggle-born wizard.

One of only two 'Harry Potter' films not to be nominated for an Academy Award (Oscar) in some category. The other one was Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002).

Though not used in the movie, the code to enter the Ministry of Magic from the street is 62442, which spells out the word MAGIC.

Edgar Bones, the Wizard standing to the left of Dumbledore and directly behind James Potter and Sirius Black, was played by Cliff Lanning (wearing a false mustache), the 1st Assistant Director of the movie.

Saoirse Ronan and Juno Temple were considered for the role of 'Luna Lovegood'. Scarlett Byrne, who later played 'Pansy Parkinson' in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009), also auditioned for the role.

In the novel, Umbridge releases at least 25 educational decrees. In the film, she releases way over 100 of them.

Over 30,000 individually placed tiles were used to create the Ministry of Magic sets

Many Harry Potter fans went to see Happy Feet (2006) just to see a trailer for this film.

Even though they play enemies in this movie, Emma Thompson and Imelda Staunton are very good friends, have appeared together in many films, and even live opposite each other.

Voldemort and his followers place a great deal of value on blood purity. Ironically, Voldemort is himself half-blooded, having had a witch for a mother and a muggle father.

Timothy Spall: Reprising his role of Peter Pettigrew (Wormtail), seen only in the moving photograph of the original Order.

The only jinx we see Neville Longbottom use successfully against an enemy, Petrificus Totalus, 'just happens' to be the very same jinx Hermione used on him in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001).

Daniel Radcliffe can't tolerate contact lenses, so in the scene where Harry is possessed, his eyes are digitally changed.

Originally the death of Sirius Black appeared just as it does in the novel, with Bellatrix pushing him through the death archway after a longer one-on-one duel. Though filmed, the sequence was cut due to time and pacing issues. A portion of this original death scene remains in the final film: when hit with the killing curse, Sirius inexplicably floats backward though the arch.

Harry's scream at the Department of Mysteries was cut out because it was too agonizing.

Though the Mirror of Erised doesn't appear on the novel it turns up in the movie. It can be seen during Harry's possession by Voldemort and when Harry draws closer to the mirror his face is shown distorted with some of the Dark Lord's features. David Yates and Stuart Craig decided to use it as there as one more example of the many appeals to objects and shots from previous movies on the series.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Trivia

J.K. Rowling read through the script for this film, and found a line where Dumbledore mentions a girl he had a crush on when he was younger. After reading it, she informed the filmmakers that Dumbledore is in fact gay, and that his only romantic infatuation was with the wizard Grindelwald, whom he later had to defeat in a wizard duel. She later made this information public while promoting the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Dame Maggie Smith completed filming this film whilst undergoing radio-therapy as treatment for breast cancer.

Although all the teachers at Hogwarts are addressed as "Professor", Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has said that there is no university for wizards. This revelation has two implications: first, that the professor salutation is an honorific; second, that those who wish to learn more than standard schooling must apprentice themselves to experts in any given field, just as was done in the Middle Ages.

Warner Brothers received death threats for pushing the movie's release date to 2009 when it was scheduled to be released in 2008.

Jessie Cave beat over 7000 girls to win the role of Lavender Brown, Ron's "love-interest" from the book.

Hero Fiennes-Tiffin has been cast as Tom Riddle, Age 11, while his uncle, Ralph Fiennes plays Lord Voldemort (formerly Tom Riddle). His parents are Martha Fiennes (Ralph's sister) and George Tiffin. Director David Yates says that he hired Hero because of his resemblance to his uncle, but not specifically because he was the actor's nephew. He liked the dark haunted quality about the young actor.

According to production designer Stuart Craig, Tom Riddle's Orphanage is based on buildings from the Liverpool Docklands, and it is influenced by Victorian-Georgian architecture. In fact Orphanage's exterior uses original Victorian glaze bricks, to give the set a very hard structure.

Terry Gilliam, who was J.K. Rowling's personal choice to direct Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001), was approached to direct this film. However, Gilliam said, "Warner Bros. had their chance the first time around, and they blew it."

The tapestry seen near the Room of Requirement is the last of seven in "The Hunt of the Unicorn" (or the "Unicorn Tapestries") series, called "The Unicorn in Captivity." The real tapestry can be found at the Cloisters in New York City.

This is the first Harry Potter film that does not feature any aspect of Defense Against the Dark Arts classes on screen, either direct (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) through Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)) or indirect (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)). The only mention of the subject occurs when Dumbledore announces Snape's appointment to the open teaching position.

Director Guillermo del Toro turned down the chance to direct this film so he could work on Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008).

Anand Tucker and Michael Hoffman were both rumored as possible directors for this film.

Helen McCrory (Narcissa Malfoy) had been cast to play Narcissa's sister Bellatrix Lestrange in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), but had to back out because she was pregnant.

Quidditch at Hogwarts makes a grand (and much publicized) return, after being completely absent since Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005). A full game of Quidditch has in fact not been featured since Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002).

Robert Knox, who plays Marcus Belby, was tragically stabbed to death on May 24, 2008, just days after filming wrapped.

Christian Coulson, who played Tom Riddle in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), expressed an interest in returning as Riddle for this film, but David Yates recognised that Coulson was too old for the role, being nearly 30 in 2008/9.

Naomi Watts was previously reported as having accepted the role of Narcissa Malfoy, only for it to be denied her by her agency.

Thomas James Longley, James Lee Hunt and Andrew Clarke auditioned for the role of 'Tom Riddle', but lost out to Frank Dillane.

Three new scenes were added that do not appear in the book: The collapsing Millennium bridge (at the beginning of the film, and which appears in the Third Trailer); Harry flirting with the waitress at the underground station before meeting up with Dumbledore; and the Death Eater attack at the Burrow (seen in the second trailer). An attack on a Muggle bridge is actually mentioned in the original opening of the book by Cornelius Fudge, but not shown.

The original script included all of Dumbledore's memories about Voldemort as outlined in the source novel, but the director insisted on trimming them down as, according to Steve Kloves, "..he wanted to showcase Voldemort's rise without getting overly involved with his past as Riddle."

The first Harry Potter film to be rated PG by the MPAA since Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004).

Shipped to some theaters under the moniker "Candlelit".

Tim Alexander described Dumbledore's ring of fire as "someone sprayed propane and then lit it." Then, to enhance the effect, the visual effects team spent a lot of research on molten volcanoes (which have a lot of heat but no actual flames), and other references, including flares that burn underwater. The whole fire scene was very time consuming, with computer graphics artist Christopher Horvath spending eight months on it.

Over 7000 girls auditioned for the role of Lavender Brown, and read from a scene with Madam Pomfrey, Hermione and Ron. Ironically, Emma Watson recommended Jessie Cave for the role, although Cave hadn't attended any auditions.

Jamie Campbell Bower hoped to be cast as a young Riddle. He was instead cast as the teenage Gellert Grindelwald in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010).

Bill Nighy was hired to play Rufus Scrimgeour (Minister of Magic), but there was no place for the character in the film. Instead, the same role was reassigned to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010).

The night scenes were filmed in the quaint village of Lacock and the cloisters at Lacock Abbey for three nights, 25-28 October 2007. Filming took place from 5 PM-5 AM, and residents of the street were asked to black out their windows with dark blinds.

The second film to NOT open with a "Harry-centric" event. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) opened with a scene from a chapter of the fourth book, "The Riddle House". Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) opens with an event which is mentioned in the first chapter of the sixth book, "The Other Minister", where the Death Eaters collapse the Millennium Bridge in London. (Although the first images in this film are of Harry and Dumbledore at the Ministry of Magic after the battle with Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), the first legitimate and complete scene is the Death Eater attack.)

Mr Weasley's shed of Muggle artefacts contains, among other things, two Remington Noiseless Portable Typewriters and an HP Laserjet 4.

Timothy Spall plays Wormtail (Peter Pettigrew) for the fourth time, and is credited on the poster for this film, but in both Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) and this film, he does not have a single line of dialogue.

At the beginning of the film, the Death Eaters destroy the Millennium Bridge in London. In the Book it is actually the Brockdale Bridge that is destroyed. The book is set in 1996 - 1997, according to the Canon time line. The Millennium Bridge was not constructed until 1998, and opened on 10 June 2000.

Much like the first book, some differences exist between the British and American editions of the text. One such difference is in the scene where Dumbledore takes Harry to meet Slughorn. In the American edition of the book, Dumbledore excuses himself to use the bathroom. In the film, he uses the more British term, "loo." This is in contrast to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001), in which such references were shot twice to accommodate American and British audiences.

This is actually the second time Tom Felton and Jim Broadbent have worked together on film. The first time was on the 1997 film The Borrowers (1997) as members of the four-inch tall family; son Peagreen Clock and his father Pod Clock respectively. Also, Mark Williams (Arthur Weasley) played the part of Jeff the Exterminator.

In one of a number of occasions in the book in which Prof. Slughorn gets Ron's name wrong, he refers to the character as 'Rupert' - Chapter 22. Of course Ron Weasley is played by actor Rupert Grint.

Even though they are mentioned in the book, the Dursleys do not appear. This is the second film they have been left out of, with the first being Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)

Bob Hoskins was also considered for the role of Slughorn. Jim Broadbent started work on this film after filming Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008).

Originally to be released on November 20 2008, the studio decided to postpone it to July 16 2009. Officially, the decision, according to studio chief Alan Horn was largely due to the writer's strike at that time, but unofficially and know to most, the decision was following the massive earnings made by another studio movie, The Dark Knight (2008) that released on that week of July. With that, Twilight (2008), which was supposedly to be released on December 12 2008, moved to fill in that vacant release slot.

The entrance to "The Leaky Cauldron" and, behind it, Diagon Alley is shown to be on Great Newport Street, just off Charing Cross Road, between the bookshop and number 12.

David Yates is the first director since Chris Columbus to make more than one Harry Potter film.

Professor Slughorn says that he taught the entire Black family, except for Sirius. As Hogwarts only has one teacher for each subject, it may seem a bit odd that he would not have taught Sirius. The book explains this differently, however. In addition to teaching Potions, Slughorn was also head of Slytherin House, where all of the Blacks were sorted, except for Sirius. So while Slughorn taught Sirius, he never had him in Slytherin.

Voldemort's birthday is on New Year's eve 1927

As an homage to J.K. Rowling, Stephen King, a fan of hers, included a reference to the series in his novel 'Wolves of Calla', featuring Snitches as flying grenades. 'Wolves' was published one year before the 'Half-Blood Prince' novel. Rowling, in turn, returned the favor: the Gaunts (Voldemort's maternal family though Dumbledore did not mention in the film) is alluded to Leland Gaunt - the lead antagonist in King's novel 'Needful Things' (played by 'Max von Sydow' in Needful Things (1993)).

Fake working title seen in clapper boards: Champion.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) was extensively color graded and due to the film's overly dark tones, Warner Bros. asked director David Yates and cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel to add more colors to the film, as they could barely see a thing on screen. After retouching some of the scenes Delbonnel realized that he had overused the grading and the final product was better. Yates remarked Delbonnel's work on the film as "The choice of angles, the extreme close-ups, the pacing of the scenes...It's very layered, incredibly rich." It was the first film in the Harry Potter series to be nominated for a Cinematography Oscar.

Production designer Stuart Craig revealed that the Three Broomsticks' design was constructed for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park first. Subsequently, the film crew constructed an exact replica during filming.

David Yates and the producers asked Wally Pfister if he could do the cinematography for this movie. Pfister declined since The Dark Knight (2008) was shooting at the same time, citing schedule conflicts.

Mark Day is the fifth editor the Harry Potter film series has had and the only one who has edited more than one film. He's been involved the Harry Potter project since Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007).

Filming returned to Gloucester Cathedral for the first time since Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002).

The drinking song that Hagrid and Slughorn are singing is titled "Odo the Hero". It was written by Harry Potter author, J.K. Rowling, but only the last four verses are known.

The set used for Professor Slughorn's office is a redress of the set that served as the Trophy Room in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005). The same set also served as the Room of Requirement in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) as well as this film.

Slughorn's trick of offering a prize for the student whose schoolwork is best is a popular teaching technique used in schools all over the world. It is called an extrinsic reward.

Professor Slughorn's toast, "To life," is very similar to the Jewish toast, "La Chaim!", which means enjoying life and celebrating all of its amazing (and sometimes unexpected) happenings.

The only 'Harry Potter' movie to be Oscar nominated for the Best Cinematography Academy Award.

Many fans have expressed distaste in the fact that Harry is shown at a train station, saying it would make more sense for him to be at the Dursley's. This is actually a nod to the book because Harry said he liked riding trains, that it "helped him take his mind off things."

Kevin McKidd was offered the role of Fenrir but could not take part due to his commitments in other projects including the TV series Grey's Anatomy. McKidd has since stated that he was also glad not to take the role for his young children would not take kindly to his appearance on screen.

The sixth of eight movies based on the Harry Potter book series by J.K. Rowling.

Like many of the fashions at Hogwarts, Professor Slughorn's mortarboard cap has a rich history. It was used in the 14th and 15th centuries to identify humanists, students, artists, and the learned in general. Slughorn's tassel is black, signifying an advanced degree.

Dumbledore's fall from the tower filled Alan Rickman with nostalgic glee, as it harked back to his first hit Die Hard (1988), where his character fell from a tall building. Rickman felt at least "he was on the other end in this film!"

Steve Kloves' script originally used all the six flashbacks of Voldemort. In the film, only two were used. Had all of the remaining flashbacks used, it would give more exposition such as how Merope Gaunt met Tom Riddle Sr in the 20s; how young Voldemort tracked down his uncle Morfin in Little Hangleton in 1943, subsequently resulting in the murder of the Riddle family; the origins of Hufflepuff's Cup being a horcrux - which pays off in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011); and finally, explaining why the Defense of the Dark Arts job gets jinxed with each teacher lasting no more than one year since 1956 - Dumbledore turned down Riddle's offer to teach.

Actor Tom Felton has stated in an interview that in the near end shot sequence of the film, after Snape kills Dumbledore and is leading the other Death Eaters out of Hogwarts and through the Great Hall, an accident had occurred on set a few minutes into the shooting: before the actors had started filming, Alan Rickman "turned around in this very sinister way and said, 'don't step on my cloak,'" (at the time of which it was unclear to his fellow co-stars if he was joking or not) as the director had instructed the other actors that when shooting began, they were to stay close behind Rickman as they followed him without looking at their feet - a difficult task due to the dragging length of Snape's cloak. As shooting began during the second take, Felton, being the closest person to Rickman in the scene, had accidentally dug his heel into the cloak, causing Rickman's neck to rip back. Felton had reported there was an awkward silence afterward, clear that Rickman was not in a good mood after the accident had occurred. Felton continuously apologized to Rickman afterward, in that Rickman did accept and made a joke of the accident later on.

There is a scene in this movie in which Death Eaters, led by Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter) and Fenrir Greyback (Dave Legeno), attack The Burrow where Harry, the Weasleys, Lupin, and Tonks are staying. This particular scene was not in the book, but was made just for the movie to serve as a representative of all the news reports, which are scattered around in the source novel, about various attacks by Death Eaters on the wizard community. It was considered to provide better pacing for a movie to have Harry actually experience one such attack first hand, rather than hearing/reading about those that kept happening to some other students, or their relatives.

Originally, the shooting script was written so that Harry takes possession of Dumbledore's wand after he is killed. Shortly before filming began, the final book in the series came out, in which Dumbledore's wand, and who possesses it, turn out to be major issues, so the script had to be changed.

According to ILM visual effects supervisor Tim Alexander, completing the Inferius attack took several months: "It was much bolder and scarier than we imagined that they'd ever go in a Potter movie. David Yates was really cautious of not making this into a zombie movie, so we were constantly trying to figure out how not to make these dead people coming up look like zombies. A lot of it came down to their movement - they don't move fast, but they don't move really slow or groan and moan. We ended up going with a very realistic style." He also noted that Inferi are skinnier than zombies, as well as being waterlogged and grey

When Draco Malfoy goes to the Room of Requirement for the final time, you can see the harp that put Fluffy to sleep and the King from the game of chess from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001).

When Harry is in Dumbledore's office at the end of the film, a bowl of sherbet lemons can be seen on his desk. In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001), Dumbledore announced these to be his favorite Muggle candy.

The omission in this movie of the battle at Hogwarts between members of the Order of the Phoenix and Death Eaters was due to the fact that the writers did not want to seek repetition when they film the climactic battle of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011).

In the flashback scene in which Dumbledore visits the young Tom Riddle in the orphanage, a photograph on the wall of Tom's room depicts the same place that Dumbledore and Harry travel to in search of the third Horcrux (the locket). In the book, it is described as a place where young Tom Riddle once used magic to terrorize his fellow orphans while on a trip (hence the place has special meaning to him). There are also seven rocks on the windowsill, which is the same number of Horcruxes that Tom/Voldemort created.

When the trio (Harry, Ron and Hermione) are talking about Dumbledore's age, Ron says "About 150, give or take a few years" and they start laughing as if it was a joke. This is also the exact number that J.K. Rowling provided during an interview. She later officially stated on her website that Dumbledore was 115 years old at the time of his death.

On December 12th 2009, a special "BD-Live" screening event of the film was held for owners of the movie on Blu-Ray, a first of its kind. It allowed people to watch the film on Blu-Ray, while listening live to Daniel Radcliffe and producer David Barron (sitting in for director Yates, who was ill) who were watching and administering the event. There they discussed various aspects of the entire franchise, while the film was showing, and even had some questions from viewers to address. Among the all too few trivia bits on this particular film they revealed during this screening are:

•The "Butterbeer" we see the students drinking in this film is actually a well known British fruit drink called J20, with fake foam added on top. However, an official "ButterBeer" is in the making for a planned Harry Potter theme park.

•The foam in Ron's mouth in one scene is made of egg white.

•Dan admitted he never tries to go for "real tears" in any such scenes, by advice he got from actor Kenneth Branagh. Instead he relies on acting and "tricks of the trade" to get the desired effect across.

•The strange "fluid" in Dumbledore's Pensive is entirely done with CG.

•That highly torturous fluid in the cave that Dumbledore drinks, this was really just some milk thinned down with water and then visually "tweaked" by the CG department.

•Barron commented that the film's director and the composer tried "for months" to create a specific "Phoenix song" score which they felt would do its book description justice, for the scene where this bird leaves Hogwarts. Several different things were composed and tested, before they pretty much gave up trying and settled on this very basic score we now hear at the end of the film.

The character Fenrir Greyback is a direct reference to Fenris the wolf as depicted in the Nordic mythology. In that myth, Fenris bit the arm of Tyr and was prophesied to be involved in Odin's death as will be killed by Tyr's brother Vidar during Ragnarok. The novel shares the similar mythology: Bill Weasley, Ron's brother was attacked, his face scarred during the skirmish with Fenrir like as Fenris bit Tyr's arm; like Fenris' involvement with Odin's death, Fenrir was among the group who was involved in Dumbledore's murder; Deathly Hallows resolves the story. An interesting fact that was never mentioned in the movie is that Fenrir was the wolf who infected Remus Lupin.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 Trivia

Jason Isaacs originally considered not returning for this film, fearing that his character's arrest and imprisonment at the end of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) would mean very little if any screen time in the finale. Upon meeting J.K. Rowling, he begged to be let out of prison. She told him "You're out. Chapter one." This immediately convinced him to sign on for the film.

David Holmes, 25, Daniel Radcliffe's stunt-double, was seriously injured on the set at Leavesden Studios, near Watford, Hertfordshire. He was performing an aerial sequence when he fell to the ground following an explosion, which was part of the stunt, and sustained a serious back injury.

John Williams, who composed the scores to the first three films, expressed his interest in returning to score 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows', but was unable to do so due to scheduling conflicts.

First time that Brendan Gleeson, Michael Byrne, Peter Mullan, and David O'Hara have appeared in the same movie since Braveheart (1995).

Over 500 wands were created for the film. They are checked out and checked in before, during, and after the filming day is completed. Many came back broken.

According to David Heyman, the work print of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" was at 5.5 hours long, and the shooting script was close to 500 pages, which justified the decision to split the movie into two.

Jamie Campbell Bower broke his ankle while performing his jump stunt (after stealing the Elder Wand). His injury ruled him out of the auditioning of Bryan Singer's Jack the Giant Slayer (2013).

Frances de la Tour reprises the role of Madame Olympe Maxime (from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)) in this film; the character does not appear in the book. She may be a substitute for Viktor Krum (also from the Goblet story), who appeared prominently at the same scene in the book.

Filming the "Seven Harrys" scene was so complex that Daniel Radcliffe counted over 90 takes for just a single shot.

Upon seeing the set for Hermione's bedroom, Emma Watson told the set decorators that there should be more books, which they happily accommodated.

At first, this was meant to be only one film, but due to the size of the book, and the decision that nothing could be left out to squeeze into one movie, the producers decided to split it into this film and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011).

A scene was filmed in which Tonks told Mrs. Weasley that she was pregnant, but ultimately cut from the final version.

Even though it's hard to see, Tonks is in fact wearing a maternity gown at Bill and Fleur's wedding.

Bruno Delbonnel declined to return for the final two films, saying that "I think I was scared of repeating myself." Subsequently, the filmmakers hired fellow French-Portuguese cinematographer Eduardo Serra.

Nick Moran has said in interviews that his role as Scabior came across as being too intense and had to be cut down.

Composer Alexandre Desplat's favorite Harry Potter character is Dobby.

M. Night Shyamalan was interested in directing this installment.

Bill Weasley is played by Domhnall Gleeson, son of cast member Brendan Gleeson.

Guillermo del Toro expressed interest in directing this installment.

The character Griphook was played by Verne Troyer in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001); making him one of the few Americans cast; but was voiced by Warwick Davis. In this film, Davis plays Griphook in both body and voice. Davis also plays Professor Filius Flitwick throughout the series.

Cast members John Hurt and Bill Nighy have both played prominent roles in adaptations of another well-known fantasy series, The Lord of the Rings. Hurt was the voice of Aragorn in Ralph Bakshi's 1978 film The Lord of the Rings (1978). Nighy was the voice of Sam Gamgee in the BBC Radio broadcast.

Composer Nicholas Hooper turned down the opportunity to score the final two films, saying that working on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) took a toll on his family's personal life.

Originally to be released in 3-D, this decision was scrapped just weeks before release, due to the difficulty of converting the film into the format.

One of the posters in the café where the trio ends up after Apparating into London is from Daniel Radcliffe's play 'Equus'.

First of the films to have J.K. Rowling as producer.

In the opening of the film, when Hermione is called down to tea, we can hear her parents talking about Australia along with an announcer, presumably on the TV, taking about a country-side. This is a reference to the book, in which Hermione says she not only wiped herself from her parents memories, but gave them new identities and made them think that they'd love nothing more than to move to Australia, which we presume that they do.

Linguist expert Dr. Francis Nolan devised the Parseltongue language for this and the other Harry Potter films which feature the serpent speak.

Rhys Ifans admitted that he never read the books of the series but took the role of Mr. Lovegood out of the chance to work with other cast, being the show with an all-star cast.

The character Fenrir Greyback (Dave Legeno) is a reference to Fenris the Wolf in the Nordic mythology. In that mythology, Fenrir bit the arm of Tyr and was involved in Odin's death, triggering Ragnarok. The movie shares some similarities; in the Seven Harry's scene, Bill Weasley (Domhnall Gleeson) remarks how he got his face scarred by Fenrir in a skirmish, just as how Tyr's arm got bitten (note: this was originally mentioned at the end of Half-Blood Prince novel); A small flashback of Dumbledore's murder can be seen at the beginning - in the previous movie, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009), Fenrir was among the Death Eaters involved, similar to Odin's death.

John Hurt's reprisal as Ollivander marks the longest gap - 9 years - since his previous appearance in the series. Toby Jones reprisal as Dobby was second longest, at 8 years.

The main street set in Godric's Hollow is the same set used for the Hogsmeade set in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), albeit with some set dressing changes.

the scenes featuring Dobby and Kreecher were filmed twice. First they were played physically on set by their respective voice actors, so the other actors and animators had a guideline to work with. Then the same scene was shot without the voice actors, so the SFX team could put in their CG characters in post-production.

The only Harry Potter film Industrial Light & Magic did not provide visual effects for.

Warwick Davis worked a third job; aside from the two characters he plays in the series, Davis runs a company called Willow (1988) Personnel Management. This company helps little people to find work on film, and found the on-set stand-ins for Dobby and Kreacher.

Scabior's violent twist in the air when Bellatrix uses her whip on him was not in the original script. Nick Moran improvised it on the set to avoid being upstaged by Helena Bonham Carter. The filmmakers liked that touch and decided to use it. Moran was delighted, until he realized that, for it to work, that stunt would have to be repeated for several takes.

Nick Moran was interested in knowing how his character would appear in costume. He saw earlier renderings and was unsatisfied with some of it. He requested several items to be added, including knee-high boots that had to be laced up 'all the way and were uncomfortable while running. He had no clue he would have to be running in the forest after Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson from a good amount of takes.

The exterior scenes of Malfoy Manor were shot at Hardwick Hall, one of the most significant Elizabethan country houses in England.

40 versions of Slytherin's locket were made for the scene in which Harry and Ron try to destroy it.

Stanislav Ianevski did appear in his role as Viktor Krum for the wedding scene, but his scenes were cut from the final film (although promo pictures of him dancing with Emma Watson exist, as well as behind-the-scenes footage).

Elphias Doge (David Ryall) states he knew Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) the longest. This is likely to be true of the actors. Twenty-four years previously, Ryall and Gambon shared a great deal of screen time in The Singing Detective (1986). And forty-three years previously they were both cast in Much Ado About Nothing (1967).

The only film in the series not to feature Dame Maggie Smith (Professor Minerva McGonagall) or David Bradley (Argus Filch).

As in her previous films, Evanna Lynch designed a lot for her Luna Lovegood character, including what she wore, jewelry and things for the Lovegood's home. She even came up with their dance moves for the wedding scene.

The seventh of eight movies based on the 'Harry Potter' book series by J.K. Rowling.

At first, both parts (I & II) would be converted in IMAX 3D (during post-production) but Warner Bros. canceled this conversion for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010) and (until now), only Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) would be the only 'Harry Potter' movie that will be released entirely in 3D.

Filming the torture scene where Bellatrix is torturing Hermione at the Malfoy's Manor at the climax proved to be very intense for the actors involved (Most of the scene was cut to avoid an R rating in the USA and a 15 rating in the UK). So intense and brutal as it was that Helena Bonham Carter approached Emma Watson right afterward to make sure they were still on good terms.

This is the only Harry Potter film not to feature Hogwarts, although the Hogwarts Lake does briefly appear in the final scene where Voldemort takes the Elder Wand from Albus Dumbledore's grave.

Having Bellatrix carve "mudblood" into Hermione's arm during the torture scene was not in the original script, but it was an idea that both Emma Watson and Helena Bonham Carter came up with together on the spur of the moment during filming.

It had been reported that the film would contain a few scenes of Daniel Radcliffe in the nude, leading to speculation among fans that the film would earn a more strict rating. This turned out not to be the case, although the scene in which visions of Harry and Hermione kissing appear to try to deter Ron give the illusion that Radcliffe and Emma Watson are both nude. In reality both actors wore jeans and Watson was provided with a strapless brassiere so she would not have to be completely topless. Director David Yates said that complete nudity was not necessary as the characters would be partially obscured by fog.

The revelation that R.A.B. was Sirius Black's brother Regulus was actually correctly guessed by book readers soon after 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' was published, and a good two years before 'Deathly Hallows' was. Of all the surnames that J.K. Rowling came up with for the series, Black is the only one that readily translates into other languages. In foreign language editions of the book in which this surname is translated, RAB was similarly altered, such that the B always matched the first letter of the word for black. For example, Dutch editions translated Sirius Black as Sirius Zwarts, and R.A.B. to R.A.Z. Finnish editions used Sirius Musta and R.A.M.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 Trivia

John Hurt's reprisal as Ollivander was the longest gap in the series - 9 years, while Miriam Margolyes brief reprise appearance as Professor Pomona Sprout was second - 8 years.

Kate Winslet was first considered for and reportedly offered the role of Helena Ravenclaw. The role was rejected by her agent before she was able to consider it, believing that Winslet would not want to "follow suit with every other actor in Britain by being a part of Harry Potter". The role subsequently went to Kelly Macdonald.

The fight scene between Maggie Smith and Alan Rickman was filmed when Smith was 76 years old, which makes her the oldest actress to have a fight scene in a movie.

When Harry revealed that he was still alive in the Hogwarts courtyard, Draco was meant to initially break ranks with the Death Eaters and throw Harry his wand. The scene was filmed, but not included in the final edit.

When David Heyman was asked if there were any actors that he wished had been in the series but never were, he answered Eileen Atkins, Ian McKellen, Daniel Day-Lewis, Daniel Craig, James McAvoy and Anne-Marie Duff. He now wished to work with them in future projects. Daniel Radcliffe would have loved to see Helen Mirren, Judi Dench and Stephen Fry (the narrator of the UK Harry Potter audio-books).

In every shot in which Voldemort and Bellatrix Lestrange appear together, she always moves so that she stands on his right, traditionally the position of the most loyal and trusted follower.

Molly Weasley's line "Not my daughter you bitch!" is Julie Walters' favorite line throughout her career.

According to J.K. Rowling, the battle of Hogwarts was fought on 2 May 1998. Victoire Weasley (Bill and Fleur's eldest daughter) seen at the background in the epilogue has the same birth date, 2 years later, her name meaning "victory" in French.

The fight between McGonagall and Snape was considered to be changed into Potter against Snape instead. The idea was scrapped by J.K. Rowling, who insisted that the duel should involve the same characters as them in the novel, as she saw it as a key moment for Maggie Smith's character.

It was reported that a huge blaze wrecked the Hogwarts set after a battle scene went spectacularly wrong. According to the report, explosives used in action sequences set light to scenery for the wizardry school, and that firefighters battled for 40 minutes to bring the flames under control but the set - centerpiece for the film's Battle of Hogwarts climax - was left badly damaged. It was later confirmed that the fire was greatly exaggerated, and that the set that had been damaged was going to need be rebuilt anyway for use in another scene. Some actors were still filming at the studio but none of the movie's biggest stars - Daniel Radcliffe (Harry), Emma Watson (Hermione) or Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) - were involved. No one was injured.

In the story, Voldemort created several Horcruxes in an attempt to cheat death. Appropriately, his name is French for "Flight of Death" or it can also mean "Stealer/Cheater of death".

Kelly Macdonald was the last person cast as well as in the series.

Upon release, it set the record of the highest-grossing opening weekend ever, with $169.2M (previously held by The Dark Knight (2008), which earned $158.4M in its opening weekend). The record was broken again ten months later by The Avengers (2012), which earned $207.4M in its first three days.

Six of the eight 'Harry Potter' movies have been nominated for an Oscar totaling twelve nominations in the franchise. This final film in the series was nominated for three Academy Awards in 2012 and since the franchise had never won an Oscar, there was some expectation that this movie would do it. When the film failed to win any of them, it became film history that the 'Harry Potter' series never won an Oscar.

The only film in the series where Hermione actually flies on a broom.

This film is the only Harry Potter film to be released in 3D in cinemas in its entirety (only select scenes were available for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) and only in IMAX).

It had been reported that, due to her commitment to Nanny McPhee Returns (2010), Emma Thompson would be unable to appear in the Deathly Hallows films. However, she was able to return shortly before the end of filming to once again play Professor Trelawney. She joins her real-life sister Sophie Thompson, as well as her Nanny McPhee cast mates Maggie Smith, Rhys Ifans and Ralph Fiennes.

Most of the events in this film - from the raid on Gringotts to the Battle of Hogwarts - take place over the course of a single day.

Alan Rickman, Bonnie Wright, Devon Murray, Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe, Geraldine Somerville, James Phelps, Oliver Phelps, Matthew Lewis, Robbie Coltrane, Rupert Grint, Tom Felton, Josh Herdman and Warwick Davis (as Prof. Flitwick and/or Griphook the Goblin) are the only actors to have appeared in all eight movies.

As with the first half of the film, Warwick Davis's company, Willow (1988) Personnel Management, was called upon to provide little people to portray the goblins at Gringotts.

When Harry goes into the Room of Requirement, in the bottom left hand corner there is the knight that Ron rides from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001). Also present are the Cornish Pixies set loose by Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002).

210,000 coins were made for the scene inside the vault at Gringotts.

In total, Daniel Radcliffe went through 160 pairs of prop glasses by the end of the series.

Five 29-ton trucks worth of polystyrene rubble was used to create scenes of destruction throughout the film.

Over 25,000 items of clothing and costuming have been used in the Harry Potter franchise.

Daniel Radcliffe reportedly broke 80 wands throughout the series because he used them as drumsticks.

Every wand seen in any film in the franchise was created on-site. Taking the lead from descriptions in the books, each wand was 13-15 inches long and created specifically for each character. No two wands were alike.

Harry's lightning bolt scar was applied by make-up teams approximately 5,800 times by the end of the series. Daniel Radcliffe had the scar applied 2,000 times while the rest were applied to stunt doubles and stand-ins.

According to David Heyman, the film's assembly/workprint was 5.5 hours, and the shooting script was close to 500 pages. This also explained why the film was split into two.

David Yates said that the epilogue was re-shot because the heavy makeup originally applied on the actors at adult age didn't reflect well in the dailies.

This is the only entry in the series not to feature an arrangement of John Williams' "Hedwig's Theme" playing over either the Warner Bros. logo or the title at the beginning of the film. The theme is, however, used several times throughout the rest of the movie, including an extended performance at the beginning of the end credits.

The Triwizard cloak which Harry wears in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) with 'POTTER' printed on the back can be seen in the background during some of the Boathouse scenes.

Production working title: Extra Time.

The only entry in the series to feature the Armenian duduk. It is heard during the opening titles.

An estimated average of 5000 feet of film were shot and printed for each production day.

This movie, the last in the 'Harry Potter' franchise, has the equal highest number of Academy Award nominations by a 'Harry Potter' movie totaling to three. The other series entry to do this was the first film in the franchise, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001). This is the only 'Harry Potter' movie to be Oscar nominated for the Best Make-Up Academy Award.

In the first film, Griphook the Goblin was played by Verne Troyer. In this film, the same character is played by Warwick Davis.

This is the last of eight movies based on the Harry Potter book series by J.K. Rowling.

Not long after Alan Rickman started to play Severus Snape, J.K. Rowling told him some character secrets about Snape that would not be otherwise revealed until the last book. Most significantly, Rickman was one of the very few people other than Rowling to know (years ahead of the last book's publication) that Snape had been in love with Lily Evans (later Potter) when they were students at Hogwarts, and both Snape's protection of and antagonism toward Harry came from that. Rowling said that she shared this information with Rickman because "he needed to understand, I think, and does completely understand and did completely understand where this bitterness towards this boy, who's living proof of [Lily's] preference for another man, came from." According to Rickman, the directors prior to the publication of the last book were not privy to the information of Snape's true character either, and he had to ask them to defer to him on the portrayal of Snape, whether or not they understood why.

According to J.K. Rowling, one of the few characters that was sure to survive the entire series was Hagrid. She had always had an image of a grieving Hagrid carrying a deceased Harry into Hogwarts, which was fitting since it was Hagrid who had also introduced Harry into the wizarding world.

At the end of the film, Harry has two sons and a daughter, one of whom he addresses as "Albus Severus Potter." The older one, never addressed by name, is James Sirius Potter (named after Harry's father and godfather). The girl's name is Lily Luna Potter (named after Harry's mother and good friend Luna Lovegood).

Although all of the films except Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) have had a customized version of the Warner Bros. logo, this one has a scene (a replay from the previous film of Voldemort robbing Dumbledore's grave) before the studio logo - the first time this has been done for a studio-made Hollywood film in over 75 years.

In the first movie, 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone', Harry's chocolate frog flies out the window of the Hogwarts Express. What happened to said frog is unknown, but in the epilogue of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, a chocolate frog is seen climbing up the window of the Weasley and Potter children's carriage.

Although Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) does in fact survive in the end, this is the only Harry Potter movie in which Harry himself does not deliver the final line (his son Albus Severus Potter does instead). It should also be noted that in the end of the actual book, Harry does in fact deliver the last spoken line, although the remaining text is narration.

The script was originally written, like the book, to include Draco Malfoy's bully friends, Crabbe and Goyle. As in the book, Crabbe was to be killed in a climactic battle. Jamie Waylett's arrest and conviction on drug charges, however, forced the filmmakers to change this plan. Crabbe was written out of the script, with Goyle being killed in his place. Another Slytherin character Blaise Zabini (portrayed by Louis Cordice) takes Goyle's place from the book.

The filmmakers persuaded Tom Felton to convince his girlfriend, Jade Gordon, to play Draco Malfoy's wife, Astoria Greengrass, in the film's epilogue.

Both Emma Watson and Rupert Grint have stated in several separate interviews, that filming their much awaited on-screen kiss was an "absolutely horrible" experience, due to Emma's admission of Rupert being "like a brother." It took only six takes to complete; whereas the kiss between Harry & Ginny took around ten, Ron & Lavender approx. 15, and Harry & Cho took over 30 takes, by comparison.

Other than Harry causing Voldemort's spell to backfire, the only good character depicted as directly killing a Death Eater (in this case, Bellatrix) is Molly Weasley.

The character Fenrir Greyback (Dave Legeno) is a reference to Fenris the Wolf in Nordic mythology. In the mythology, Fenris was part of the Ragnarok battle and was foretold to be killed by Vidar in retaliation to the murder of Odin. The film shares the similarities: Fenrir was also part of the attack at Hogwarts akin to Ragnarok; and one of Hermione's spells caused him to fall to his death. However, in the novel, Ron was supposedly the one indirectly killing him thus matching the role of Vidar killing Fenris.

J.K. Rowling initially considered having Arthur or Ron as the Weasley casualty but decided to give reprieve to both as they form an integral part of the series. She ultimately settled on having Fred killed as it serves two purposes: to give a sense of loss for George and the payoff of Percy's rivalry against his Ministry's arch-rival Rookwood (who was revealed to be a Death Eater).

Although it is never mentioned in book nor film who killed Remus and Tonks, J.K. Rowling revealed as an anecdote that Bellatrix (Helena Bonham Carter) killed Tonks while Dolohov (Arben Bajraktaraj) killed Remus.

In the book, Snape's (Alan Rickman) death originally takes place at the Shrieking Shack, but art directors suggested and moved the location (with J.K. Rowling's agreement) to the boathouse in order to make it more dramatic and poignant. One of the art directors, Andrew Ackland-Snow added, "We wanted to get him out from, not a conventional interior, but from that kind of box, to do it in a more dramatic atmosphere."

Some time before the final book was published, Daniel Radcliffe asked writer J.K. Rowling whether his character Harry would die at the end. After a silence, Rowling gave him the very cryptic answer "You get a death scene".

By her own admission, killing off Remus Lupin was one of the hardest decisions that J.K. Rowling had to make while writing the books. She felt that, in order to show that war sometimes demands impossible sacrifices, someone important had to die. She finally chose both Lupin and Tonks as the casualties, as it made their infant son Teddy an orphan, which closely mirrored infant Harry losing his parents in the previous war. In the book, Harry appropriately becomes Teddy's godfather, but Teddy was deleted from the movie.

The hint that Neville (Matthew Lewis) ends up in a relationship with Luna Lovegood (Evanna Lynch) was created especially for the movie. J.K. Rowling had revealed that both Neville and Luna married different people long before the final movie came out.


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